


A Lily, Unplucked

by squidears



Series: A Mother's Touch [1]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon compliant to chapter 105, Family, Family Issues, Gen, Manga Spoilers, Miscommunication, Shirou is some weird combo of uncle/stepdad, Single Mom Yuri kicks ass, Yuri Egin Lives, baby daddy drama, kind of fluffy but there's also angst in there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2019-07-28 12:19:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16241477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squidears/pseuds/squidears
Summary: There are infinite universes, with infinite possibilities. In this one, Yuri Egin survives and raises her children in secret, hidden from the eyes of the True Cross Order. Thankfully, she doesn't have to do it alone.





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, folks, the fic that's been years in the making! This has its origins in an AU that I've roleplayed for a while, but I've tweaked the story a considerable amount. So this is an AU of an AU, if you will. This baby is going to have at least 11 chapters, probably more, but I have 9 chapters in various forms of being written and 2 more in the works so far. I've also got some bits for later parts of the series written... but jury's out on whether I'll actually end up using those or writing something different. We'll see how this story goes. I'm planning on releasing a chapter of this every week, but kudos and reviews motivate me to work more, soooo.... you know the drill.

Getting his hands on a key to Yuri’s forest was deceptively easy. Shirou had expected some kind of suspicion from the Grigori or Mephisto, but instead the headmaster simply tossed him a small, golden key with one of his signature shit-eating grins. It made the priest’s stomach turn, but he’d learned over the years not to look a gift horse in the mouth.  
The key dropped him on the outer edge of the forest her cabin was located in. As he walked, he thought about why the Grigori had allowed him to come without any sort of request for surveillance; after the stillbirths, the Order had lost all interest in Yuri. They’d allowed her to grieve without interference in a rare show of decency— whether it was out of kindness or guilt, nobody was sure.  
Shirou had allowed her to grieve alone, too. It had seemed like a good idea at the time; after opposing the pregnancy so violently, how could his sympathy do anything but rub salt into an open wound? After not hearing from Yuri for nearly two years, he was starting to regret his decision. At this point, he was wondering if she would even want to see him. Shirou had essentially abandoned her at her darkest moment, after all. He wouldn’t blame her if she simply turned him away at the door.

Upon reaching her cabin, it took Shirou a few moments to muster up the courage to actually knock. After a few long moments, Yuri opened the door, her eyes wide at the sight of the man standing there. “Shirou? I-I wasn’t expecting you,” she said with a small, nervous smile; her long, curly hair was disheveled, and there were dark half-moons underneath her eyes. Was the grief from her childrens’ stillbirth still affecting her? Two years seemed like a suspiciously long time to grieve for Shirou. Then again, he was well-acquainted with death, and he had never lost a child. He stepped inside, a move that made Yuri visibly tense.

_What was she hiding?_

“I figured it was about time I visited. How are you, Yuri?” Red eyes bored into teal for only a few moments before she looked away. Before Yuri could answer, she was interrupted by a strange, loud pattering noise that made her face blanch. A moment later, Shirou understood why. Two toddlers ran into the room, grabbing onto Yuri’s skirts and babbling happily— one looked almost identical to Yuri herself, and the other…  
“You lied!” Shirou yelled, furious. The human-looking one started to cry, startled by the loud noise; clutching his brother, the demon hissed. “I left you alone, thinking you were grieving, and instead you were raising those… those _things_!”

“Those ‘things’ are my sons!” Yuri snapped, protectively drawing the twins closer to her. The human boy buried his face in her skirts, trembling. “And before you touch a single hair on their heads, you’re going to have to go through me.” As if echoing his mother’s sentiment, the demon boy snarled, and the blue flames surrounding him flared.

Wait.

Shirou stared down at the boy engulfed in flames and then looked up at Yuri, expecting to find some sort of discomfort or pain on her face from being burnt, but he found nothing. “It’s not burning you,” he said, anger quickly replaced by confusion. “How? Are you immune?”

“ _Rin_ has never burnt anyone,” Yuri replied pointedly, smoothing down the demon’s raven hair. “He knows how to control his flames.”

_She named him after—?!_ “A toddler knows how to control Satan’s flames,” Shirou said incredulously. “Can he even talk yet?”

Yuri’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Yukio can, and Rin can understand the both of us,” she said. As if to prove her point, she turned her attention towards the demon child. “Sweetheart, do you want to play the candle game with Mommy?” The demon— Rin — nodded and squealed enthusiastically, making grabbing motions with his little clawed hands.

“Candle game, candle game!” The human boy (Yukio?) said. Yuri grabbed a tea candle from a cupboard that appeared to be full of them and placed it in front of Rin.

“Okay, light the candle for Mommy and Uncle Shirou,” Yuri told the demon sweetly. _Uncle Shirou?_ Well, these boys were technically his nephews…And Shirou’s uncles, at the same time. But even Shirou could barely comprehend that, so there was no use trying to explain that to a toddler. Said toddler glanced at the candle’s wick and set it alight with blue flame, looking up at his mother proudly and expectantly. “Good job, Rin!” The boy smiled, flashed a scraggly mouthful of tiny fangs, and babbled something that sounded suspiciously like Gehennan. “Can you make the flame go away now?” And just like that, the flame was extinguished.

“Damn,” Shirou breathed. The kid couldn’t speak Japanese, but he could control his flames so well that it was almost scary. “Is this how you trained him to control it? These games?”

“Partially,” Yuri said, scooping both boys up into her arms. The twins stared at Shirou, their only common feature being the strange red dots in the center of their pupils. The human boy began to suck his thumb, and the demon boy put the fluffy tip of his tail into his mouth. “A lot of it seems to be instinctual for him. Rin also knows that if his flames get too hot, they’ll hurt us. He hates hurting people.”

“A demon that hates hurting people. Now I’ve heard it all,” muttered Shirou.

Yuri leaned closer to Shirou, tightening her grip on her sons. Her expression was one of pure desperation. “Please, don’t tell the Order,” she begged. “You know what they do with children like them.”

Shirou knew better than anyone else what they did to children like Rin and Yukio. Yuri wasn’t aware of Section 13 as far as Shirou knew; she was probably thinking of the discrimination and bullying the children with obvious demonic blood in the Asylum faced, and while that was upsetting, it was nothing compared to the idea of the experiments the Order would put those twins through. Seeing those flames on an infant repulsed Shirou on instinct, but he still couldn’t bear the idea of any more children going through what he and his brothers had. “I won’t, I swear.”

Yuri gave him a small, relieved smile. “I knew you’d come around,” she said warmly. “I’m about to make myself some coffee. You want any?”

“…Isn’t it a little late for that?”

“I’ve been awake since two AM. I’m having coffee, Shirou.” The priest grimaced sympathetically. “Could you hold one of them? I need an arm free.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Yuri,” Shirou said, but she was already shifting her weight and holding Rin out in a way that made it very clear that he was supposed to grab him. He was a little annoyed that Yuri was going out of her way to hand him the kid he wanted to interact with least, but what was he gonna do, refuse to hold him and look like a total ass? Maybe it was better that she handed him the less fragile one; he’d never held a kid before, and he was a little worried about messing up. At least if he ended up dropping Rin, the kid would probably heal immediately.  
Shirou took Rin, placing him on his hip in the same way he’d seen Yuri hold him. The boy kept one hand on his tail as he continued to gnaw at the fluffy tip, and clung to Shirou’s shoulder with the other. The man winced and let out a small hiss at the feeling of five teeny claws poking him through his cassock. “Would it kill ya to be a little more gentle, kid?”

Rin stared at him blankly with a look that said, ‘ _What are you talking about? This is me being gentle._ ’ The boy was unnaturally warm pressed up against his side; whether it was from the warmth of the flames or the kid’s natural body temperature, Shirou couldn’t make out. Shirou was at least grateful that the boy was tolerating being held. He was still mouthing the tip of his tail and eyeing Shirou suspiciously, but he wasn’t trying to fight or jump out of his arms. That was all the Paladin could ask for.

Fuck, how was he supposed to interact with kids, again? Shirou spent a lot of his day teaching high schoolers, but that was very different from talking to your best friend’s demon toddler. “Uh… nice to meet you,” he said stiffly. Looking Rin in the eye made Shirou deeply uncomfortable; he had Yuri’s eye shape, but his irises practically glowed blue and had slit pupils. Aside from the dark hair, the kid had resembled Satan and Gorou the most at first glance— but now that Shirou was looking closer, he saw that Rin was a rather balanced combination of all of his parents. “I know we got off to kind of a bad start, but you aren’t that bad, I guess. Way less evil than I expected.”

Rin continued to stare at him, and Shirou began to wonder how much the kid actually understood. Neither Satan nor Gorou had a particularly good grasp on language, and the priest suspected that the boy had inherited a speech delay of some sort. Weren’t kids usually talking by this age?

“They’re both being shy,” Yuri said, as if guessing what Shirou was thinking. “Rin isn’t as good with words as Yukio, but usually he tries to talk more often… they’ve never met anyone like you before, you know.”

“…Like me?”

“A human man,” she explained. Shirou couldn’t help but be impressed at her ability to make a pot of coffee one-handed; she clearly had a lot of practice. “You’re the first human they’ve met who isn’t me.”

Shirou raised an eyebrow. “They haven’t met Rick yet?”

Yuri bit her lip, and fiddled with the coffee maker. “I’ve seen him a few times since the twins were born, but I haven’t let him know about them yet,” she admitted. “He’s not… involved in this the way you are. He’s got his own family to worry about, and after what happened to him on the Blue Night… I’m not sure how he would react to them.”

Rick had been one of the many people left alive but disfigured by the Blue Night. He was luckier than some others in that his wife and kids had been left unscathed, but he himself had extensive burn scars over a large portion of his body. Shirou had seen it for himself, helping out in True Cross Hospital’s burn unit during the immediate aftermath of that fateful night. “You’re right,” Shirou said. “Might wanna wait until they’re a little older, and that night isn’t as fresh in everyone’s minds.”

The coffee eventually got made, and Yuri and Shirou watched the twins play with blocks on the floor as Yuri nursed her drink. “It’s nice to be able to have an actual conversation with an adult again,” Yuri sighed. “Lately, I only ever leave the house to buy supplies, and having only the boys to talk to was about to drive me insane… I love my sons, but sometimes you want to talk to someone out of diapers, you know?”

Shirou blinked. “Uh, I guess…” Raising twins seemed difficult enough when both children were human and there were two parents around; it was a testament to Yuri’s strength and resilience that everyone was faring so well. “What do you do with them when you go outside?”

“I summon a naiad to babysit. Much cheaper than a human babysitter, and she knows how to handle Rin,” Yuri said, resting a hand on her cheek. In any other situation, Shirou would have worried about the safety of the children; in this case, using a demon to babysit was probably the best option. Anyone else would either have no idea how to take care of a demon child, or would report Yuri to the Order immediately. “I could take Yukio with me, but I’d feel horrible leaving Rin alone with Cory-chan. He can’t stand being separated from his brother…” Another sigh. “He gets so upset when Yukio can go places he can’t. I’m not sure Rin has realized that he’s different yet.”   
The boys played with each other as Shirou assumed any other toddlers would; ‘with’ was a bit of a misnomer, as they played more beside each other than anything. Yukio was making a small stack of blocks, while Rin had shoved a block into his mouth and was gnawing on it with small, nubby fangs. Shirou moved to pull the block out of his mouth, but Yuri placed a hand on his arm. “There’s no point, he’s teething,” she said with a shake of her head. “He chews on everything in sight, and he might bite you if you take it out of his mouth.” Yuri was clearly speaking from experience.

Shirou thought for a long while, brows furrowed at he looked at Yuri’s haggard appearance. He really hated kids and demons, but he hated how worn down Yuri looked even more. Fujimoto was an adult, he could put his hard feelings aside for the sake of an old friend. “I want to help you with them, Yuri. Not as their father or anything,” he added quickly, remembering the off-hand comment Yuri had made back when he’d brought her Shura and the crush she’d had when they were younger. “More like—”

“An uncle?” Yuri offered with a knowing smile.


	2. Well, They Tried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins come up with a nickname for Shirou.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got done with the third chapter ahead of schedule and I got Thursday and Friday off from classes, so have a chapter early! I appreciate all of the comments everyone has left me so far, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Figured I'd give you all one that's primarily fluff... because the later ones are gonna get angsty. So prepare yourselves now.

Shirou visited whenever his schedule allowed it; usually once or twice a week, but occasionally he’d squeeze in an extra visit here and there. It was nice to see Yuri again, even if it meant tolerating her hellspawn.  
The human one, Yukio, wasn’t that bad. A little bit of a crybaby, but Yuri assured him that was normal for a kid his age. He was very verbal, and smart enough that Shirou could hold some extremely basic conversations with him— when he wasn’t clinging to his mother, that is. Yukio couldn’t bear to be without either his mother or brother, and he was scared stiff of strangers. He’d known the twins for nearly six months at this point, and Yukio had just started to tolerate being alone in a room with Shirou for more than a few minutes at a time.

Rin had no such reservations. He was much too friendly for his own good; the boy was perfectly comfortable clambering onto Shirou’s lap after knowing him for less than a week, and he’d only become more outgoing since then. He either couldn’t tell that his existence made the priest uncomfortable, or he was aware and had latched onto him out of spite— Yuri believed the former, but Shirou was leaning towards the latter. What other explanation was there for the way Rin would babble and try to grab the Paladin’s nose even as he glared at the boy?

“He really _is_ your son,” Shirou said one day, after peeling Rin off of his leg for the fifth time. The boy was always toddling underfoot, even though doing so had caused him several falls at this point from Shirou accidentally bumping into him. “Clearly inherited your inability to leave me alone…”

Yuri laughed, and beckoned for Rin. The kid, to his credit, took the hint and toddled over to his mother. “He admires you,” she said warmly, pulling Rin onto her lap. The kids were just big enough that holding both of them in her lap at the same time looked uncomfortable to Shirou, but Yuri didn’t seem to think anything of it. “You just want to hang out with cool Uncle Shirou, don’t you, baby?” Rin burbled something that might have been severely mangled Gehennan, which Yuri responded to with, “Yes, I know! Exactly!”

Shirou gave his friend an incredulous look. “…Can you actually understand him?”

“Sometimes,” Yuri said, a little defensive. “Not that time specifically, but sometimes. Talking to them is very important for language development, you know. All the books say so.” Shirou suddenly recalled Gorou blurting nonsense on the exam table next to him and frowned; babbling was normal infant behavior, but he couldn’t help but worry a little. Inheriting elixir-induced brain damage was hardly a thing, especially when Rin took so strongly after Satan, but what if…? No. It was much too early to jump to such a distressing conclusion, and Shirou wasn’t about to make Yuri lose sleep over it. “Can you say Uncle Shirou?”

“Jii!” Rin squealed, throwing tiny, clawed hands up into the air.

“That’s right, he’s your _ojisan_ ,” Yuri said warmly, pleasantly surprised. Shirou wasn’t entirely convinced that Rin hadn’t just happened to stumble across a sound that coincidentally resembled the word ‘uncle’.

“Jiijii!” Yuri’s eyes went comically wide, and Shirou burst into laughter in spite of himself. The look of sheer panic on her face at the kid’s unintentional insult had him howling with laughter, even as Yukio joined in on the chant. Their mother frantically trying to get the boys to say something else, anything else, made him laugh so hard that tears began to stream down his face.

“Fuck, they’re too cute for me to be mad at them,” he said after finally catching his breath, wiping at the corner of his eye.

“Shirou! Stop it, you’re corrupting my children!” Yuri wailed.

He couldn’t help but burst into laughter again, clutching at his stomach; his diaphragm was going to be sore as hell tomorrow. “I’m corrupting the sons of Satan? Listen to yourself!”

Yuri could only glare at him angrily for a few moments before she cracked, letting a small huff of laughter escape. More quickly followed, and soon they were both cracking up so loudly that the twins could only look on in confusion. Delighted that he’d made his mother and uncle laugh, Rin began to repeat the phrase once again with a snaggletoothed grin, starting the laughter anew each time.

It was only upon subsequent visits that Shirou started to regret his decision to laugh; both twins seemed to take it as approval of the nickname, and now neither Shirou nor Yuri could keep them from screaming, “Jii! Jii!” every time he came around. What had been funny the first few times was quickly getting on his nerves, but he couldn’t even be mad at anyone but himself. He’d made his bed, and now he had to lie in it.

“At least they’re sticking to ‘Jii’ this time,” Yuri consoled him, unable to hide the way her lips twitched upwards.

“They’re still calling me old!” He knew the white hair threw people off, and smoking combined with stress hadn’t done him any favors, but did he seriously look like a grandfather? He wasn’t even forty yet!

“Oh come on, Shirou, they don’t know it’s not the same thing as _ojisan_ ,” Yuri said, rolling her eyes. She leaned down towards where Rin and Yukio were seated on the floor, hands on her knees. “How old do you boys think Uncle Shirou is?”

“ **This many,** ” Rin said in Gehennan, holding up two hands with his fingers splayed wide. Yuri had studied enough Gehennan to understand her son, but Shirou had to infer everything the demon kid said in the language from his posture and gestures. This time, he managed to get the gist.

“See? He thinks you’re ten years old!” Yuri exclaimed, gesturing with an open hand down at Rin.

“Let’s be honest, we both know Rin isn’t the brightest bulb around,” Shirou stage whispered to Yuri, holding a hand to the side of his mouth in a fake attempt to be surreptitious. It didn’t matter; Rin wasn’t old enough to understand that he was being insulted. The priest smirked at Yuri’s offended expression, then put his hand back down at his side and turned to the human twin. “Oi, Yukio. What do you think?”

Yukio held his hands up in the exact same way Rin had. “This many!”

Shirou raised a brow. “Wow, they’re both dumb.”

Yuri couldn’t help but smack her forehead in frustration. She honestly couldn’t tell whether Shirou was joking. “They’re not dumb, Shirou, they’re babies! They don’t even know how numbers work yet!”

“Mama this many,” Yukio added at the worst possible moment, holding up only one hand this time. Shirou looked even more scandalized than he had previously, and Yuri had to work even harder not to burst out laughing.

“He thinks you’re _half my age_?! We’re only six years apart!”

“That’s three times as long as they’ve been alive, Shirou. And I told you they don’t know how numbers work,” Yuri said with clear exasperation, although Shirou detected a hint of smug satisfaction in her expression that hadn’t been there before.

Shirou turned to look at Yuri again, narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brow. He pointed a finger at her accusingly. “Did you train them to do this?”

Yuri rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, because I have the free time to do that. I took valuable time I could have spent teaching my sons to dress themselves and use the toilet, and I taught them to insult you instead.”

“So you admit it!” Shirou exclaimed, vindicated. Yuri didn’t even dignify him with a response; instead, she just groaned and buried her face in her hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ojisan: Uncle, not to be confused with ojiisan (grandfather)  
> Jii: usually said in the form of Jii-chan or Ojii-chan, a name to call your own grandfather  
> Jiijii: Disrespectful term for an old man, commonly translated at “Old Fart” or “Old Man”


	3. Namesake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins turn three, and Shirou makes a discovery.

Shirou’s affection for Yuri’s kids— his nephews, as he often thought of them nowadays —grew just as steadily as the twins themselves did. While he started out visiting primarily to see Yuri, somewhere along the way he began to look forward to Rin’s antics and Yukio’s quiet, sweet nature. Watching the twins interact with each other was a hoot, and they always seemed to be growing or learning something new. With each visit, he saw their steps get steadier and their speech get clearer. Yukio started to speak in full sentences; Rin finally began to speak Japanese for more than a few syllables at a time, although he had a strange accent and he still clearly preferred Gehennan.

Before anyone knew it, it was the twins’ third birthday— the first birthday Shirou would celebrate with them. He’d met them a few months before their second birthday, but Shirou had still felt uncomfortable with the concept of celebrating their existence when that birthday had rolled around. This time around, he was able to slip away from the monastery without anyone even noticing he was gone; all of the other priests were sleeping off the Christmas insanity well into the afternoon. Shirou, thankfully, didn’t need as much sleep as most people. The cup of coffee he’d had before walking out the door helped, too.

At the cabin, he found Yuri and the twins outside enjoying the snow. “Jii!” Rin and Yukio shouted in unison, moving to swarm Shirou. Rin got there first, having shed the snow jacket and snow pants that slowed Yukio down to a waddle. Yuri was still holding his jacket, clearly having been in the middle of convincing Rin to put it back on when Shirou arrived.

“It my birthday Jii,” Rin said, a little breathless. The kid was like a walking snow plow; the snow around his feet had begun to melt, and his tail kicked up the white stuff behind him as it wagged violently.

Yukio pouted and sped up, barely managing to keep himself from toppling over. He bumped into Shirou rather roughly, wrapping his arms around his leg. “Mine, too!”

Shirou laughed, reaching out with both hands to ruffle their hair. “Happy birthday, you two. Now how old are you, again?”

“Three!” Yukio said, holding up three fingers proudly. Rin held up two at first, but quickly corrected himself.

Shirou groaned dramatically, making the boys giggle. “Jeez, so big! You make your _Ojisan_ feel old, you know that?”

“We big kids?” Rin asked, beaming.

Yuri smirked, placing a hand on her hip. “How can you be big kids when you’re still my babies?”

Rin and Yukio loudly expressed their outrage and embarrassment, flushing even redder than the pink tinge being outside had already given them. “ _Mama!_ ” They bemoaned in unison; Rin stomped his foot, while Yukio covered his face with his mittens. Shirou laughed at their reactions, mortifying the twins even further.

“How long have you all been out here?” Shirou asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Cause I kinda wanna go inside…” He’d been fine on the walk here, but he could feel the tips of his ears and nose start to go numb from the chill. Both Yuri and Yukio’s cheeks and noses were bright red, and Yukio was starting to shiver.

“Long enough. Let’s head inside,” Yuri said, heading towards the door and beckoning for the twins and Shirou to follow. Rin groaned and opened his mouth, but Yuri interrupted before he could speak. “You might feel fine, Rin, but the rest of us don’t have flames to keep us warm.”

Rin responded with something in Gehennan that Shirou didn’t understand very well, despite his recent efforts to start learning a bit of the language; it was clearly some sort of idea he was offering up involving his flames, but Shirou had no idea what he was on about otherwise.

“We’d all have to huddle very close for you to warm us up with your flames, sweetheart,” Yuri replied. “And don’t you want dinner? I made something special that I think everyone will like…”

The demon boy perked up at the mention of food, his flames brightening. “Meat?” Rin was living proof that demons were carnivorous by nature; the kid loved red meat, preferring it even over sweets. It was a rare treat, but Rin adored beef— particularly beef tataki, charred on the outside and rare on the inside. Yukio didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, either, taking more of a liking to squid jerky and other seafood. Occasionally Shirou brought the boys treats, and buying them felt more like getting bar food than snacks for children.

Yuri chuckled. “Yes, there’s meat involved,” she said, pulling open the cabin door and ushering everyone inside. “I was slicing it earlier today, remember? After you helped me cut up all the vegetables and tofu?”

Rin nodded sheepishly, although he looked a little confused. “But it not cooked?” He didn’t remember his mother cooking the thinly sliced beef on the stove, or sticking it into their oven. Were they going to eat it raw? 

“We’re going to cook it at the table in this,” Yuri said, pulling out a hot pot and its corresponding hot plate. She placed it on the dining table and plugged it in to the power strip attached to their small generator. Rin scrambled onto a chair and peered at the hot pot curiously, summoning a flame into his hand and giving his mother a questioning look. “No, we won’t need your flames to help cook it,” she said with a small laugh. “It’ll turn out great, I promise.” She continued to go through all of the steps preparing sukiyaki required; Shirou helped where he could, although most of his efforts were spent correcting the twins’ attempts at setting the table.

“You kids haven’t had sukiyaki before, have you?” Shirou asked. Rin and Yukio both shook their heads, and Shirou grinned. “Well, you’re in for a treat…”

True to his word, it was love at first bite for the twins. Yuri had to cut Rin off from the meat, but he ended up enjoying the vegetables and tofu nearly as much. Yukio didn’t eat as much as Rin, but that was rather typical for the twins; the flames burnt through a lot of energy, and meant that Rin’s appetite was beginning to rival Shirou’s as the kid grew older. By the end of the meal, everyone was full and content.

After the dishes were done, Yukio wandered off to go play with his toys while Rin clambered onto Shirou’s lap. Maybe it was because it was their birthday, but Shirou found himself thinking about the twins’ parentage for the first time in a while— and Rin’s name, specifically. Not for the first time, he wondered why Yuri had named him so blatantly after Satan.  
“It was a little cruel to name him after his father, don’t you think?” Shirou asked Yuri, bouncing Rin up and down on his leg. Distracted from the conversation, Rin giggled and shrieked with joy, and Shirou felt the strange sensation of harmlessly warm blue flames licking up his leg. The sight had nauseated him at first, but spending time around the son of Satan had forced him to quickly become used to it— jury was still out on whether that was a good thing.

“He reminds me of what he was at first,” Yuri said softly. Growing tired of being bounced, Rin turned and reached out to his mother with a small grunt. She picked him up, giving him a kiss on the forehead and snuggling him close to her chest. “Just as innocent as I was, curious about the world, playful and a little mischievous… my little _Rinka_.” Her voice had turned wistful as she gazed down at her son. “I wanted to think about the joy seeing those flames had brought me as a child, not about…” Her voice grew tight before trailing off.

She felt a small hand on her cheek, and looked down to see Rin peering up at her with concern. “Mama sad?” Yuri gave her son a small smile to show him there was no reason to be worried, but he didn’t seem to be convinced; a small black tail wrapped around her wrist as he stretched upwards, planting a three year old’s best approximation of a kiss on her cheek. “Better?”

Yuri laughed softly, the smile finally reaching her eyes. “Much better now. You’re such a sweet boy, my _Rinka_.” Rin reached up and wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck, looking up at her with clear adoration.

Shirou couldn’t do much but stare, an unreadable expression on his face. He had always considered his hard, emotionless affect a defect of birth, the unavoidable result of being descended from a demon. Rin and Yukio had the exact same blood— and Satan’s, to top it off! —and yet they were sensitive, loving children. Would he have turned out more like the twins if he’d had a mother who loved him, instead of lab techs and scientists more concerned with the experiments than the children?

After a short while, Rin tired of being held and looked over to where his brother played longingly. “Mama, down please?” Yuri obliged, and Rin ran off to join Yukio in the far corner of the room. They were playing… well, neither Yuri nor Shirou were entirely sure what they were playing, but it seemed to involve dolls riding toy trucks that were much too small for them. They played for a while, until both boys were clearly on the verge of nodding off where they sat; getting them to bed was a simple affair when both twins were too exhausted to protest. They’d had an eventful day, after all, and both of them were positively stuffed with sukiyaki.

After the twins were put to bed, the adults sat down at the table and continued their conversation. “Have you figured out Yukio’s namesake yet?” Yuri asked Shirou quietly, a small smirk on her face. Shirou was beginning to question his original assumption about the younger twin’s name; with the way Yuri was smiling, it had to be something more clever than what he was thinking.

Shirou scratched his head. “I thought you named him that because they were born in December?”

Yuri burst into laughter, trying her best to keep silent but unable to help herself. “I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out, of all people!” Shirou looked even more confused, which made her giggle even more. “Think about how his name could be written, Shirou…”

 _Yukiotoko_.

“You named him after me?!” Or rather, the childish nickname she’d come up with when they first met. “You planning on passing him off as mine or something?” Shirou blurted his question without thinking, as something of an off-hand joke; Shirou was genetically identical to Gorou, so it was technically possible. Yuri clearly didn’t find it funny. In fact, she looked profoundly disturbed by what she had said. Shit, had he touched a nerve? “You can, if you want. It’s not— I wouldn’t be offended or anything, it might be safer if he was so I can see why you’d—”

“I wasn’t thinking about that when I named him,” she admitted quietly. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and one side of her lips twitched upwards into a tentative smile. “It sounds so cheesy, now that I’m not loaded up on all those pregnancy hormones. You’d laugh if I told you.”

For once, there was no hint of a joke in Shirou’s expression. “Tell me.”

“…I wanted to name my sons after the two most important men in my life,” she said, focusing intently on smoothing down her skirt. “The two who have been there since the beginning. And that’s you and Ri- Satan, for better and for worse. I wanted my sons to have the best parts of both of you.”

Shirou wisely bit his tongue and decided not to comment on being placed in the same category as Satan. He got what she meant; they had both played important roles in her life. The twins definitely wouldn’t have existed without Satan for obvious reasons, but they probably wouldn’t have existed without Shirou, either. “I don’t think it’s cheesy,” he said, and he was surprised to find he meant it. “I’m honored.” His usual shit-eating grin returned. “Especially since I’m pretty sure you chose the smarter one for me— _ow_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks for continuing to read and for your reviews! Note on this chapter: Yukio doesn't know he likes sashimi yet because children under 5 shouldn't eat raw fish. There's going to be a timeskip within the next few chapters as well, so watch out for that. Not a big one, but still a skip.
> 
> Second note: After chapter 105 was released, I changed the ending on this chapter to fit with current canon knowledge. Don't worry folks, the angst lost here will be paid back in interest.


	4. Ashura

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After joining the Cram School, Shura notices that her mentor's schedule has several suspicious gaps in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this update being a little late! I've had several late nights due to auditions and such. I appreciate all the kudos and comments left so far, and I hope you enjoy this chapter :) Sorry if it seems kind of rushed at the end, I wanted to end on a good note but I plan on coming back the things addressed in this chapter later.

It was only once Shura started Cram School that she realized Father Fujimoto’s schedule was all kinds of fucked up. Before, she hadn’t seen Shirou every day, or even every week; he stopped by the convent that had taken her in whenever he had time, which wasn’t often. He was the Paladin, a Cram School teacher, and a priest on top of all that— he barely had time to sleep, let alone make the trek out to the dumb nunnery they stuck Shura in.  
One of the things Shura had been looking forward to most about Cram School (aside from getting to use her sword again) was seeing Shirou more often. She had Cram School every school night, so that meant six whole days a week she would get to see him! Right?  
She soon found that Anti-Demon Pharmaceuticals was not only just twice a week, but it was _really fucking boring_. Sure, Fujimoto also trained Shura alone outside of his class, but he often left early. A few times, he was a no show. Shirou had said there was an emergency he needed to attend to, but there had been no talk of any kind of demonic catastrophe that needed the Paladin’s intervention.

Shura was becoming suspicious— suspicious enough that she decided to follow him one day after Cram School, because she seriously doubted he was going to the monastery or back to his office. He wasn’t heading out on a mission, either, because he wasn’t cursing a ‘stupid fucking clown’ under his breath. He did keep texting someone, but Shura couldn’t get close enough to see what he was texting about without risking her cover.

Shirou walked to the nearest train station, boarding one of those regional lines that only ran every 30 minutes. Making sure he didn’t spot her was difficult, because there weren’t many people around for Shura to hide behind. Thankfully, the train was one of the ones with little standing room and seats arranged in rows. While Shirou entered from near the front of the car, Shura entered from the car behind him and sat several rows behind. They got off the train at some po-dunk, rural station that only had one train line. The station seemed familiar to her, but Shura couldn’t place it. Had she been here with Shirou before back when he’d first taken her in?

She was beginning to think he was here on some sort of top secret mission… and then he walked into a supermarket, completely destroying her theory. Did he go out to this random rural village just to _grocery shop_? Still, Shura followed him inside; maybe the things he bought would be telling. She grabbed a basket so that none of the clerks would hassle her and tailed him throughout the store. A few times, he turned around as if he suspected he was being followed, but Shura was usually able to duck into another aisle or pretend she was browsing. Her blood was thrumming in her veins. This wasn’t quite as good as chasing her prey through a snow covered forest, but it was close; the human world was usually boring, so it was nice to sneak around again. Just like old times.  
For the most part, Shirou bought what seemed like normal groceries to Shura; a bag of rice, miso, mayonnaise, eggs, some fish. He grabbed a few brightly colored packages clearly targeted towards children as well, though, which struck Shura as strange. She’d never known Shirou to have much of a sweet tooth. Was he buying it for one of the other priests? She considered that it was possible that Shirou had a secret family of some sort, but she quickly dismissed that idea as ridiculous. There was _that woman_ , but as far as Shura knew they hadn’t talked since the Blue Night. Shirou never talked about her.

The priest paid for his groceries and left the store. Shura quickly grabbed a soda and paid for her singular purchase, casually waltzing out of the store several moments after he left. Instead of heading back to the station, however, he started heading into the dense forest near the village. _This just keeps getting weirder_ , Shura thought to herself as she scaled a tree. It was easier to track him up here. Humans rarely looked up, after all, and the creaking of branches and rustling of leaves were readily explained away by most people’s minds.  
After a while, he made it to a cabin, where— wait. She knew this cabin. Shura’s heart started pounding in her chest again, and her face flushed red with jealous anger. This was _that woman_ ’s cabin! They _did_ have a secret family!

Her worst suspicions were confirmed when Yuri exited the cabin to greet Shirou with a hug, flocked by a kid who looked just like her. She scowled angrily at the kid from her perch, ignoring the lump in her throat and the way her eyes burned with unshed tears. Yuri’s words from when she was small rung in her ears, mocking her. _We could raise her together, like a family. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?_ Apparently, Shirou had decided it was wonderful after all… as long as Shura wasn’t involved. She wiped a few stray tears away furtively, sniffling.

“ **What’s wrong?** ” A child’s voice said from behind her in Gehennan; it was less serpentine than the dialect Shura had grown up using, but still recognizable. Shura nearly jumped out of her own skin, pulling her Serpent Fang from her chest when she saw that he was wreathed in blue flame. Instead of being frightened, the demon looked delighted to see the sword. He looked about the same age as the human boy Shura had seen. “ **Wow, that’s so cool! How’d you do that?** ”

“Get the Hell away from me,” she snarled, letting her hurt turn to adrenaline and anger. The sight of those blue flames scared her shitless, but Shura refused to show it. She was pretty sure this wasn’t Satan, since she wasn’t dead yet, but showing any weakness could still be a death sentence. The demon backed away onto a branch further from Shura, eyes wide and focused on the sword. “What _are_ you?”

“I’m Rin,” he said in the same thick Gehennan accent Shura had possessed when she first started speaking Japanese exclusively. Rin… if she hadn’t been sure he was related to Satan before, she definitely was now. “Are you mad ‘cause I sneaked up on you? I’m sorry.” How could something so demonic act so soft, so _human_? It was clearly some kind of trick.

“Drop the act!” Shura barked, her ‘stealth mission’ all but forgotten. “You ain’t foolin’ me, I grew up with demons. I know how yer kind acts. What do you want?” The demon stared at her blankly. “Well? Out with it!”

Before Rin could reply, they heard a loud gasp from below. “SHURA!” Shirou’s voice rang out. Shura looked down, frozen in place; Shirou looked furious, and Yuri and the kid were both staring in horror. Were they worried about the demon hurting her? Maybe she was just feeling cocky, but Shura felt like she had the situation under control. “Both of you, down here right now,” Shirou said in a way that meant there was no room from argument.

Shura made her way down slowly, scowling all the while. The demon, on the other hand, jumped and ran directly towards Yuri. Shura tensed, expecting Shirou to step in and stop him from attacking Yuri at any moment— instead, her confusion grew when Yuri opened her arms and wrapped the demon up in a hug. Shura’s jaw dropped. “Wha… What the _fuck_ is goin’ on here?!” Had Yuri had a kid with Satan as well as Shirou? But they looked like they were about the same age… How was that possible?

“I should be asking you that exact question,” Father Fujimoto said sternly. “Why did you follow me here, Shura?”

“Cause I knew somethin’ weird was up with you, and I was right!” Shura exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the priest. “All that talk about not being able to take care of a kid, and you’ve had a secret family right under my nose this whole time.” Her lip curled upwards in disgust. She had half a mind to report all of them to the Order. What would happen to the demon kid wasn’t even a consideration in her mind; she was overwhelmed with the vindictive urge to tear apart this little bit of happiness Shirou had denied her.

Yuri had that sympathetic look in her eye, and it made Shura sick. She stepped towards the girl with an outstretched arm as the two kids clung to her skirts. “Shura—”

“Can it,” Shura hissed. To her credit, Yuri didn’t attempt to explain or speak any further. Rin’s fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white; Shura was pretty sure the only thing keeping him from throwing himself at her was Yuri’s hand on his shoulder.

Shirou sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair. “They’re not my secret family, Shura,” he explained calmly and evenly, as if going over this for the hundredth time instead of the first. “…Well, not in the way you’re thinking of, at least. I’m not their father, Satan is.”

Shura raised a brow. “I can believe that about Satan Junior, but you’re seriously expecting me to believe Four Eyes over here is Satan’s, too? He’s clearly human!”

“N-Nuh uh, I’m half-demon just like Nii-san,” the human kid protested, his voice soft yet full of conviction. The little scaredy cat was still clinging to his mother like his life depended on it.

“Yeah, we am paternal twins!” Rin seemed to be offended on the behalf of Four Eyes.

“You’re _fraternal_ twins,” Yuri corrected Rin. Shura wondered how a kid raised by a human could be so bad at Japanese while speaking Gehennan fluently, but it was probably some kind of weird demon thing. “I know better than anyone who their father is, and it’s Satan— not Shirou.”

“He’s our _Uncle_ Shirou,” Rin piped up, rolling his eyes as if he were stating something obvious. “Uncle can’t be Dad.”

“Why didn’t I hear about any of this?” Shura asked, narrowing her eyes up at Shirou. Judging by how little the twins were, she’d probably been around 10 years old when Yuri got pregnant. Why hadn’t Shirou mentioned one of his closest friends being impregnated by Satan? Why hadn’t _anyone_ mentioned that?

“Only my closest friends and the leaders of the Order knew I was pregnant,” Yuri said. “It was top secret. Can you imagine the panic if everyone had known?” Shura was silent, but admitted to herself begrudgingly that the woman had a point. The mere mention of the Blue Night was enough to scare some and drive others into a rage, even almost five years later. Yuri probably would have ended up hunted down and murdered before ever getting the chance to deliver if everyone knew. “After the boys were born, I told the Order that they were dead and started raising them here in secret. Even Shirou didn’t find out they were alive until they were two, and he’s been helping me ever since.”

Shirou stepped towards Shura and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry for not telling you earlier, Shura, but it’s very important that you don’t tell _anyone_ ,” he said solemnly. “If the Order found out, everyone would be in danger. It could even attract Satan’s attention. Do you understand?”

Shura didn’t entirely get it, but she nodded anyways. What choice did she have? She knew how much it sucked to have the Order swoop in on your life and change everything; even though she was still kind of jealous of the twins, she didn’t want to force two four year olds into that kind of suffering. The more she thought about it, the more she worried about what they’d do to the demon kid in particular. He’d probably end up locked away just for being born with those flames, and that was a fate the teenage girl wouldn’t wish on anyone. “I get it, but that doesn’t mean I like it.”

Everyone looked relieved at her rather begrudging answer, but a long, pregnant silence still followed. Yuri was the first to break the tension. “Well, I’d better get started on dinner,” she said with a small grin. “Thanks for the groceries, Shirou.” She turned to Shura, her smile widening. “It’s nice to see you again, Shura. You’ve grown so much! Now that you know about us, you can come around more often.”

Yuri retreated inside towards the kitchen with Shirou following close behind, but the twins stayed outside with Shura. Had they just assigned her babysitter duty, or was this some sort of hamfisted attempt to get them all to know each other without adult interference? Either way, the Exwire was pretty annoyed— and a little surprised that Yuri trusted her alone with her sons so soon after pointing a sword at one of them… then again, she’d probably assumed (correctly) that Satan Junior’s flames were enough of a deterrent against fighting. Shura had grown up with too many horror stories about those blue flames to risk experiencing them any time soon.

The twins were holding hands and staring up at her, which Shura found adorable and creepy at the same time. The one with glasses whose name she still hadn’t learned was clinging onto his brother’s hand like his life depended on it, and Rin was very clearly putting on a brave face for his younger brother. “You met Mama before?” Rin asked, his tail tapping lightly against the ground.

Shura folded her arms across her chest. “Yeah, when I was a little older’n you guys.” She wasn’t going to offer them any more information than that, but even that small tidbit seemed to satisfy them.

“How old are you?” Four Eyes asked.

“Fifteen.” This was impressive, apparently, because both twins went from skeptical to beaming up at Shura. What was it with little kids and finding teenagers cool?

“That’s so cool! When you’re fifteen, do they let you stop wearing so much clothes?!” Rin blurted.

At first, Shura could only muster up a confused, “ _Huh_?” She knew kids could ask some pretty strange, invasive questions— she’d asked plenty herself —but how was she even supposed to answer that? “…What the Hell makes ya think that?” Technically, nobody ‘let’ her wear the skimpy stuff she wore. They just didn’t bother trying to discipline her for something she’d never change. The nuns had tried, and it’d only made her double down on her clothing choices.

“Cause you aren’t wearing hardly any clothes ‘n I didn’t know that was ‘llowed,” Rin said, looking at Shura as if she’d just asked whether the sky was blue. “I don’t like wearing clothes too, but Mama say I have to and that burning them off is bad.” He pinched a bit of his shirt in between clawed fingers, scowling down at the material. Shura definitely understood the sentiment, and even found herself sympathizing with the kid a little.

She still had half a mind to tell the kid off for asking such an invasive question— but decided that messing with Rin, and by extension Shirou and Yuri, would be a lot more fun. Smirking evilly, Shura replied, “Got it right on the first try, kid. Oh, I know! You should ask yer Ma how old _you_ have to be until you don’t have to wear clothes!”

Four Eyes looked skeptical, but Satan Junior took the bait. “Okay!” Shura was barely able to hold back her laughter when Rin ran back inside, yelling, “ **Ma! When do I get to not wear clothes and get a sword like Shura-nee?!** ” She walked inside after the kid, bursting into raucous laughter at last when she saw Yuri’s bewildered expression. The look of absolute resignation on Shirou’s face only made her laugh harder. These kids were _way_ more fun to mess with than the nuns; Shura would have to come back sometime soon, with or without Fujimoto.


	5. First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yukio goes to school. Rin doesn't. Nobody handles it particularly well.

When Yuri asked him to come over and watch Rin while she took Yukio to his first day of school, he’d been under the impression that she’d given him the easy job. Yukio was bound to be a nervous wreck, and Yuri needed to be the one to soothe his fears about going to school without his mother and Nii-san. Rin probably just needed to be distracted, which would be easy considering the kid had the attention span of a spoon. Right?

Wrong. As soon as Yuri and Yukio had left, Rin had gone into a tantrum. “Wanna go to school with Yuki!” Rin protested, stomping his foot as his flames flared around him. Nothing was scorched or burnt, but they were much warmer than Rin usually kept them; Shirou could feel the heat radiating from them from a distance. He glared up at Shirou defiantly, pupils narrowing to angry slits.

“I’m sorry, Rin, but you can’t,” Shirou explained, kneeling down to Rin’s level so that he could look the boy straight in the eyes. The half-demon was still fuming, but he didn’t strike out. He could probably sense the empathy Shirou felt for the boy; he understood intimately how frustrating it was, watching other children live normal lives. How much of his own childhood had Shirou spent watching bitterly from the sidelines, subjected to endless tests and experiments while other children ran (relatively) free? Nobody in the Asylum had any semblance of a normal childhood, but Section 13 had been its own special brand of Hell.

“Why not?” The boy’s Japanese had been improving steadily, but the thick Gehennan accent made him difficult to understand at times. He felt much more comfortable speaking the demonic tongue, but Shirou had made it a rule early on that all conversations with him had to be in Japanese. He had to get his practice somewhere; the boy usually spoke Gehennan to his mother and brother, and nobody seemed to want that to change.

Shirou thought long and hard about how to respond to Rin’s question, smoothing down the boy’s navy blue locks. He had to answer carefully, lest Yuri get angry at him. Too goofy, and Rin would get frustrated; too harsh, and Rin would be inconsolable. Shirou had to tell the truth, but be gentle about it— not exactly his strong suit. “Until you can look more human, school isn’t safe for you,” he said, uncharacteristically gentle.

Rin clearly didn’t understand. His little black tail swept from side to side behind him. “But I _am_ human. Mama says.”

“Human _and_ demon,” Shirou said patiently. They both knew Rin was aware of this.

“So is Yuki!”

Rin’s ignorance, however genuine, was beginning to wear on Fujimoto’s nerves. “You must have noticed by now that you’re very different from your brother. Haven’t you ever wondered why that is?” Rin drew in on himself, fiddling with the tuft on his tail. The boy bit his lip; he clearly wanted to place the tip of the tail in his mouth like he had as a baby, much like Yukio had sucked his thumb, but his mother and Father Fujimoto had scolded them both for that kind of behavior. He and Yukio were big kids now.

Rin had known he was different from everyone else in his life for as long as he could remember, but he usually didn’t mind. Nobody else did. Did the people outside mind? Was that why he’d never been able to leave the forest? “I’m more like Satan than him,” Rin said. They rarely talked about the twins’ father, but the boy knew _that_ much. Despite his own matter-of-fact tone, Rin didn’t miss how sad the statement made Shirou look.

Red eyes met blue, and Shirou reached forward to push a lock of hair behind Rin’s pointed ear. He looked even sadder; had Rin said something wrong? “You and Satan don’t have anything in common where it counts,” he said, pulling the boy into his arms, “but some people can’t see that.”

Being like Satan was _definitely_ something bad, Rin concluded. Why else would Uncle Shirou talk about him like that, with that tone of voice? The boy laid his head against Shirou’s chest; he was still young enough that he saw no shame in taking comfort from his uncle’s presence, and it soothed the ache of rejection from the world well enough. “Sometimes I wish I was human like you and Mama and Yuki,” Rin said quietly. “Is that bad?” His mother had always told him to be proud of who and what he was. Wanting to be like the rest of his family felt like a betrayal; he knew for a fact it would make his mother upset.

“Everyone wishes for another life sometimes, Rin.” Shirou certainly couldn’t blame him, even if he knew hearing Rin say something like that would break Yuri’s heart. He began to think of Kurikara, long returned to the temple Shirou had stolen it from; the boy was too old now and his demonic abilities were far too developed, but he could have been sealed at one point. If Yuri had brought him to Mephisto and gotten him sealed, he could have led a relatively normal childhood, gone to school with his brother… But those possibilities weren’t worth the pain of thinking about, let alone discussing with Rin.  
All they could do now was either teach Rin how to glamour himself and appear human temporarily, or get their hands on some kind of talisman that would allow him to do so. Shirou was sure Mephisto knew a considerable amount about this kind of thing, but resolved to go to the demon only as a last resort; he was sure the King of Time knew about the twins, but either of them acknowledging that fact in an official context was much too dangerous. Shirou’s suspicion that Mephisto would ask for some annoying, inconvenient favor in return for providing them with help didn’t particularly motivate him to discuss the issue with the King of Time, either. He and Yuri would have to research this independently and in secret. Thankfully, Shirou had full access to the Order’s massive library— and the friendship of some librarians who were _very_ passionate about patron confidentiality.

* * *

 

Yukio had been completely silent for most of the way to school, his anxiety growing the closer they came to the school. Yuri’s best efforts to get her son talking and distracted were either ignored or given short, distracted answers; he clutched her hand, his grip tightening throughout their journey. When it came time for Yukio to enter the school, all of the emotions that had been building up inside him spilled out in a flood of tears. “I d-don’t want to go alone! I want Nii-san!”

“Sweetie, we talked about why Rin isn’t going to school,” Yuri said with a small sigh, crouching down to Yukio’s level. “I know it’s scary to be without him, but aren’t you excited to learn new things and meet other kids?” Yukio shook his head stubbornly. She would have to try a different approach.  
She rarely shared details of her life with the boys, and for good reason; so much of her young life had been tragic and difficult, and Yuri didn’t want to burden her children with knowledge of the world’s cruelty. Still, a small snippet of truth couldn’t hurt in this situation. If she shared her own experiences, maybe her son would feel less alone. “When I was your age, school seemed scary at first. But I loved it, and I think you will, too,” she said, placing her hands on Yukio’s shoulders. Granted, the Asylum was very different from the rural elementary school Yukio would be attending… but that meant his experience was almost guaranteed to be even better than hers.

The boy poked a few fingers underneath his glasses to wipe at his eyes, sniffling. “…You really think I’ll like it?” Yuri nodded, and Yukio smiled hesitantly. “Okay, I-I guess I can try it…”

“That’s my boy,” she said, kissing him on the forehead before ushering him inside. She showed Yukio how to take off his outside shoes and put on his school shoes, then led him to the Grade 1 classroom. “I’m only taking you inside this first time, okay? After the first few weeks, I think you’ll be able to walk to school on your own.” Yukio nodded, managing to hold himself together and put on a brave face. Yuri wanted nothing more than to walk him into his classroom every day for the rest of the year, but she knew that would do more harm than good in the end; walking to school on their own was something a child Yukio’s age was supposed to be able to do. Yuri already knew that her son would be at a disadvantage socially because of her own reputation as a strange, reclusive woman, and she didn’t want anyone to have any additional ammunition against her youngest.

There was a friendly-looking young woman waiting for them at the doorway to Yukio’s classroom. Her long, straight black hair was plaited down her back. “Hello! You can call me Tooru-sensei,” she said warmly, directing her gaze to Yukio. “And who might you be?”

“Y-Yukio,” he mumbled, unable to meet her gaze.

Yuri placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I’m Egin Yuri, and this is my son, Okumura Yukio,” she said. Confusion flashed across Tooru’s face for a moment upon hearing the different surnames, but she didn’t otherwise react or comment. That was a good sign; Yuri had gotten a variety of reactions from people learning that her son didn’t share her last name, some of them very negative. She’d given Rin and Yukio separate last names in a bid to hide them further from the Order, but it also led people to the conclusion that she was a single mother, with children born out of wedlock. Nobody in the village or the surrounding area was rude about it when she had Yukio with her, but while alone, she got snide comments and strange looks.

Younger people were typically more open minded, and Tooru was no exception. She smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Egin-san,” she said, before turning her gaze to Yukio. “And you too, Yukio-kun. Would you like to come inside and meet everyone else?” She held out a hand, and Yukio extracted himself from Yuri’s side to take it. “We’ll take good care of him, I promise. You can follow the signs to the gym for the ceremony,” Tooru told Yuri warmly, before bringing Yukio into the classroom.

“I’ll see you soon, sweetheart,” she said, waving to her son and trying to ignore the lump currently forming in her throat. She’d promised herself she would _not_ be one of the mothers hysterically sobbing on their kid’s first day of school, and she intended to keep that promise, dammit. Holding back the tears felt nearly impossible as all kinds of emotions swirled in her chest; she was proud of Yukio for being so brave, upset that Rin wouldn’t have the chance to go to school, happy that her boys were growing up while also feeling sad that it was happening so _quickly_ …   
Focusing on finding the school gym helped distract Yuri from her own thoughts. She took a seat among the other parents, separate from the older students that were already seated as well; there were only about eight other parents there, all paired off into husband and wife. While most of the men appeared to be about her age, many of the women looked rather young to Yuri. She supposed that not everyone adhered to the trend of later marriage that all of the newspapers talked about. It was just her luck that all of the other parents in this tiny class were extremely traditional— almost irritatingly so. Sure, single mothers were rare, but couldn’t at least one of them have had a husband who couldn’t take off work or something?

The other parents talked among themselves softly. Many of them seemed familiar with each other; it was a small town, after all, and Yuri suspected that most of them had grown up with each other. Feeling like an interloper, she had only just begun to work up the courage to introduce herself when a portly man in a suit walked into the middle of the gym with a microphone, waving in the tiniest Grade 1 Yuri had ever seen. _Six kids_. Yuri’s own class back in the day had easily been four or five times that number.  
Yuri stood and clapped along with everyone else, beaming with pride. Yukio’s little shoulders were tense as his eyes darted around the crowd, but they relaxed slightly when he saw his mother. His eyes were rimmed with red, but he still gave his mother a little wave and a hesitant smile. She had to fight back the tears that welled up in her own eyes once again, giving her son a small wave right back. She knew how terrified and nervous he probably was right now, and she wanted nothing more than to be able to tell him how proud she was of him.

The children took their seats, and everyone else followed. The principal spoke, introducing several of the homeroom teachers, then a student from one of the upper classes gave a speech welcoming the younger students to the school. Yuri couldn’t have told someone the content of any of the speeches if her life depended on it; her eyes never left Yukio, excitement for her youngest child mixing with sorrow for her eldest. She was torn between wanting to celebrate this milestone for Yukio, and mourning an experience Rin would never get to have.  
Yuri settled on celebrating, at least until the ceremony was over. She tried to focus on how sure she was that Yukio would excel in school; he was a fast learner, and he already knew all of his hiragana and even a good amount of the kanji first years were supposed to learn. She was a little worried about whether he would make new friends, especially in a class so small, but Yukio was endearing in his own shy, kind way.  
Before she knew it, the children were filing out of the gym, and the parents were standing and clapping once again. _Time flies when you aren’t actually paying attention_ , Yuri thought to herself; the ceremony must have taken at least half an hour, but Yuri felt like it had only been a few minutes since she’d first sat down. Some of the parents hung around the gym to chat, but Yuri took the opportunity to leave. Not exactly helpful for getting to know the other parents or improving her reclusive reputation, but a sense of melancholy had come over her now that the entrance ceremony was done with.

As she began her walk home, her mind shifted towards her eldest son. Rin put on a brave face in front of his brother, but Yuri could tell how upset being ‘left behind’ made him. She could try to make it up to him and distract him all she wanted, but Yuri knew deep down that it wouldn’t change the painful reality— the outside world wasn’t safe for her son as he was. The worst part was knowing that there was nothing she could do to change it. She could only comfort him when the pain became too much to bear, and help him learn to hide himself so that he could eventually blend in.  
Yuri wiped at her eyes, allowing her tears to fall now that she was alone with her thoughts. She hated the thought of teaching her sons to hide what they were, but she had no other choice. Keeping them inside this forest for their entire lives would keep them safe, but it wasn’t healthy— and Yuri wanted more for her boys than a life trapped in one place. Rin would never fully fit into the outside world, but there had to be others out there who would accept him for who he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! Sorry this chapter was a little bit late, I've been really busy lately with rehearsals and birthdays and such. Once again, I appreciate everyone's kudos and reviews so much!
> 
> I just want to make a small cultural note here regarding Yukio walking to and from school by himself. In Japan, six years old is actually a little bit on the older side for being able to go out entirely on his own. Children are taught self-sufficiency much earlier, and kids get assigned their "first errands" where they go outside to grab things like milk and eggs by themselves around 3 years of age. Yukio is a little sheltered in comparison... but that's to be expected.


	6. Deja Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homeschooling Rin doesn't go as well as Yuri planned.

The older her sons grew, the more of Satan she saw in the two of them-- Rin, especially. Maybe it was because she spent much of the day with him, teaching him like she'd taught Rinka all those years ago; maybe it was because he shared such a strong physical resemblance with his father. Either way, homeschooling Rin sometimes gave her _deja vu_ so strong it took her breath away.

Rin was nowhere near as quick a learner as his father, or even Yukio. The speech and language issues that resolved themselves quickly in Satan persisted in Rin; reading was a torturous struggle for the boy, and lessons often resulted in temper tantrums and tears that were all too familiar to Yuri.

“ **This is stupid! I don't wanna do it anymore!** ” Rin yelled after one particularly difficult lesson, tossing the book against the wall so hard that its binding broke. Once it hit the ground, it burst into blue flames.

For a moment, Yuri glimpsed white walls, heard the frustrated yell of a young demon in a grown man’s body—

_“This is stupid!” Rinka yelled, hurling the book against the wall so hard that it disintegrated on impact. “I’m bored!” Sweat began to bead on her forehead as the room heated up. The flames weren’t burning her, but they were quickly starting to destroy everything else in the room. She had to think of some way to calm or distract Rinka. She was terrified, but not for herself; Yuri knew Rinka would never purposefully harm her. Everyone else in the building, though? They didn’t stand a chance if she didn’t come up with something soon—_

“Rinka, _no_!” Yuri yelled, and the room suddenly became silent. Her son stared up at her with wide, blue eyes. There was true concern and love in them, something Satan had never been capable of showing; the last of her memories dissipated into thin air.

All of Rin’s anger and frustration was gone now, replaced by worry for his mother. “Mama?” He inched closer to her; Yuri hated that she had to remind herself not to tense up. “I’m sorry for scarin’ you. I won’t never do it ever again.” The guilt and fear in his eyes broke her heart. Did Rin think that she was angry with him?

Yuri pulled her son into her arms and kissed the top of his head. “I could never be scared of you, sweetheart,” she said softly, running a hand through Rin’s navy locks. Despite his temper, Rin had a good, kind heart. He often didn’t know his own strength and seemed rough as a result of that, but she knew how hard Rin tried to be gentle. “Mama just remembered something scary, that’s all. It wasn’t because of you, or anything that you did. So I don’t want you to feel bad, okay?”

Rin nodded, but he didn’t appear convinced. “…You were ‘membering Satan, weren’t you?” He wasn’t dumb; he knew the name Ma had used was another name for his father, and he knew Satan was bad. Ma didn’t talk about Satan very much, but Rin had always been sensitive to other people’s feelings. He knew that his father had done something to scare and hurt his mother— something so terrible that Rin was sure he was better off not knowing any more about it.

His mother sighed; there was no use in lying. Yuri tried to be as truthful with her sons as much as she could, and both of the twins had an uncanny ability to tell when they were being deceived. “Yes, I was,” she said gently. “Sometimes, I remember things, and it’s not anyone’s fault when it happens. Do you understand?”  
The boy nodded again, frowning. As he frowned, the corners of his lips began to twitch even further downward; before Yuri knew it, Rin had burst into tears. She pulled him back into her arms again, rubbing his back soothingly. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“ **I h-hate him** ,” Rin sobbed with deep, shuddering breaths. “ **He hurt you a-and I don’t wanna be his son anymore! I wish I didn’t have his stupid flames!** ”

His mother released her embrace so that she could look him straight in the eye, one hand on each of his tiny shoulders. “Look at me, Rin,” Yuri said, gentle but firm. She had to nip this in the bud right now; the last thing she wanted was for either of her sons to grow up hating themselves, or thinking that who they were was something shameful. “Look me in the eye. Your father hurt me, but he also gave me two of the most amazing gifts in the world,” she continued, wiping away one of Rin’s tears with a thumb. “If you and your brother weren’t his sons, you wouldn’t be you. And I love you both exactly the way you are.”

The boy sniffled. “ **…Even the demon parts?** ”

“ _Especially_ the demon parts,” she said with a small smile, letting Rin wrap his tail around her palm so that she could pet the tufted end with her thumb. The boy burrowed into his mother’s arms, which was for the best; that way, he couldn’t see the guilty, saddened expression on her face.

* * *

That night after both twins were asleep, Yuri summoned a naiad to watch the boys and ventured out to the nearest pay phone. The glass box with the green telephone stood on the border between village and forest; a singular street lamp shone down like a spotlight. She’d called the Southern Cross Boys’ Monastery enough that she could do so by memory at this point. The phone rang for only a few moments before someone picked up.

“Who is this?” Yuri had gotten lucky; it was definitely Shirou’s voice on the other side of the line, so she didn’t have to awkwardly ask for one of the other priests to find Shirou.

“It’s Yuri,” she said, leaning against the side of the booth.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Yuri had tried to keep any sort of negative emotion out of her voice, but Shirou had known her for far too long to be fooled. “No, don’t worry! Well, yes, something did happen, but… it’s not an emergency, so you don’t need to run over here or anything,” she reassured him. She paused for a bit, sighing before continuing. “I… I don’t know if I should keep teaching Rin, Shirou.”

The line was silent, but Shirou’s concern was almost audible. “What makes you think that?”

“He got frustrated today. It wasn’t even that bad, compared to some of the tantrums he’s had— just yelled and threw a book at the wall. But I… Shirou, I couldn’t stop thinking of _him_ ,” Yuri said, her voice becoming increasingly choked with tears as she continued. “I-It was like I was back in that place all over again, and Rin could tell. He thought I was _afraid of him_ ,” she continued. Her heart ached with the memory of his guilty, terrified expression; the last thing she ever wanted to do was cause either of her children to feel that guilt, especially for something out of their control. What kind of mother let her son think she feared him? “I told him I wasn’t, but he still blames himself no matter what I tell him. What if it happens again? What if the only thing I end up teaching him is how to hate himself?” She spoke more and more quickly as the rate of her tears increased. Yuri was sure she was barely understandable at this point, but she kept talking even as her voice wavered and cracked.

“Yuri—”

“What was I even thinking, being the one to teach him? Didn’t I learn my lesson the last time I tried this?” Yuri continued to ramble, as if Shirou had never even attempted to speak. “With _my_ track record, I’m lucky he hasn’t turned into a psychopath! Heaven knows it’s not because I’ve improved my teaching style, I’m just lucky that Rin is naturally empathetic—”

“ _Yuri!_ ” Shirou shouted in the middle of her rant, stunning her into silence. “Just listen to yourself, you aren’t making any fucking sense!” She opened her mouth to apologize, but the priest continued speaking before she could. “You’re not going to turn Rin into a psychopath, just like you didn’t turn Satan into one. And you’re not going to fuck up his psyche and make him a self-hating demon or whatever. It’s obvious that traditional teaching isn’t going to work for either of you, so you need to sit down, pull yourself the fuck together, and figure out an alternative. You’re a good teacher, Yuri. I know you can do this.” She was a much better teacher than Shirou was— which was why she was still sorely missed at the Cram School, even years after she’d left her position there.

Yuri took several deep breaths, feeling rather foolish; she couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to spiral like this. “You’re right. I can do this,” she said firmly. She may not have felt like it at the moment, but she was still the best person possible to teach Rin. Who else in the world had several demonology textbooks under their belt, years teaching Cram School classes, and previous experience teaching demons with temper issues? Yuri had always been good at coming up with solutions to complex issues on the fly. She just had to start looking at this from a different angle; who said Rin’s education had to look anything like formal schooling? She just had to come up with something novel enough to prevent triggering any more flashbacks, while also taking into account Rin’s personal interests… and within a few moments, Yuri had an idea. “… Thank you, Shirou.”

She could hear his smug grin through the phone. “No problem. Glad I was able to knock some sense into you.”

After talking about when Shirou would come by next, they exchanged their goodbyes and Yuri began the trek back to her cabin. She planned as she walked, and found herself ready to start the preparations for tomorrow’s ‘classes’ by the time she got back. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to get everything ready for the next day; Yuri found herself both excited and nervous. She felt confident that her new lesson plan would work, but the only way to know was to try things out tomorrow. 

* * *

Rin crept into the kitchen the next morning, feeling nervous. Yukio hadn’t left for school yet, which meant Rin still had an hour or two left before his ‘class’ started… but he wasn’t looking forward to it at all. He still felt terrible for scaring Ma yesterday, even though she said it wasn’t his fault. Rin didn’t like losing his temper, but reading and math were so hard! Writing was nearly as bad. Rin liked it best when Ma read aloud to him, but it also made him feel a little embarrassed; Yukio could read all by himself just fine, so why was it so difficult for Rin? Ma said he and Yukio just learned differently, but Rin was pretty sure his younger brother was just plain smarter than him.  
Rin was going to be on his very best behavior today, he’d make sure of it. He wasn’t going to do anything that reminded Ma of his father— which, considering how little he knew about Satan, mostly meant no temper tantrums and no Gehennan. Both of those were difficult for Rin. Speaking Japanese for too long exhausted Rin and hurt his throat sometimes, and he had a tough time controlling himself when he got frustrated. But he had to try.

Ma was standing in the kitchen when Rin got there, but there wasn’t any breakfast. That was weird, since Ma was usually in the middle of making it when Rin woke up and came in.

“Good morning, Rin!” His mother said cheerily, to which Rin responded in kind. “I thought we’d do things a little differently today. Would you like to help me make breakfast?”

Rin nodded enthusiastically and scampered over to his mother’s side, tail bobbing behind him. Cooking was one of his favorite things to do; he usually helped with dinner, but breakfast was just as exciting. “What are we gonna make first?”

“Well, I was thinking we’d make everyone two slices of toast each… But I don’t know how much bread to get out,” she said, tapping her finger on her chin thoughtfully. “If there are two slices of bread, times three people, how many slices do you think that would be?”

The half demon thought about it for a little bit, counting and recounting one his fingers until he was pretty sure of the answer. “…Six?”

Ma grinned. “That’s right! Good job, sweetheart. Can you get me that many slices of bread from the breadbox?” Rin ran to the breadbox and carefully counted out six slices of bread, beaming as he handed them to his mother. “Thank you, honey. You’re so helpful!” His grin widened even further. “Oh, there’s something else I need help with. I think I’ve forgotten the instructions for using this thing. Could you read those instructions over there aloud for me?” Yuri asked, pointing to a paper of handwritten instructions sitting on the counter.

It was at this point that Rin began to suspect something was up. Using the toaster was easy, there was no way his Ma had _actually_ forgotten how to use it— but he went along with what she was asking him to do anyways. He was kind of curious to see where she was going with this, and he liked being helpful. Reading the instructions aloud was hard, but not terrible; he recognized most of the words, and Ma gently corrected him when he messed up. For some reason, he liked reading the instructions a lot more than some of the books he read. It was a lot more useful than the books, which were about things like dogs chasing balls and children running up hills.

They continued making breakfast like this, with Yuri ‘needing help’ and Rin assisting her. By the time they were finished, Yuri was confident that her new curriculum plan was going to work. She was a little mad at herself for not coming up with something like this before; Rin had always been a very hands on learner, so it made sense to teach him using practical applications. Maybe he’d be able to control himself enough to sit down and learn for several hours at a time once he got older, but for now, Yuri had to go with what worked.

Yukio tottered into the kitchen and was immediately swarmed by his brother. “Look, Yuki, I made breakfast!” Rin exclaimed, shoving a plate of food into the arms of a drowsy Yukio.

The younger twin blinked, glancing down at the food in his hands with a look of mild surprise. “Thank you, Nii-san,” he said politely, sitting down to quietly eat his breakfast. Yuri and Rin both grabbed their own plates and ate breakfast as well. Before they knew it, the meal was over and it was time for Yukio to leave for school.

Like he usually did, Rin waved from the window enthusiastically until his twin vanished into the forest. Shortly afterwards, he turned to his mother with an eager glint in his eye. “Mama, can I help you make breakfast every day? And lunch and dinner?” He helped with dinner sometimes already, but only a few times a week at most.

Yuri smiled. “About that… How would you feel about replacing some of our reading and math time with cooking time?”

Rin’s face lit up, as did his flames. What was previously a dim, blue glow surrounding Rin took on the size and brightness of a bonfire as the boy hopped around gleefully. “We can really do that?! Yes, yes, yes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, life has been kicking my butt as of late. As always, I appreciate all of the reviews and kudos you lovely folk leave <3 Hope you liked this slightly longer chapter! I was able to take a lot of inspiration from the latest chapter... although that meant retconning one of the parts earlier on in this fic. I encourage you to check out the new ending to chapter 3, Namesake. It's canon compliant up to chapter 105 now!


	7. Jailbreak, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins are ten when Shura goes rogue during babysitting duty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the first of a few multi-parter arcs to come! Thank you all for leaving more than 30 reviews, and more than 100 kudos at last count! Wow!

Shura gave the written instructions Yuri had handed her a quick scan, then tossed the paper in the trash. It was only because of how much she respected Yuri that she bothered reading the thing at all, but she wasn’t particularly surprised by the contents. She’d babysat the twins a few times before, and Shura liked to think she had all of the basic rules down pat; don’t feed the kids a bunch of junk, no drinking on babysitting duty, no using Rin for arson, and no leaving the forest with the kids. And ten year olds basically took care of themselves, right?  
Generally, Shura was pretty good at following those rules. Yuri wouldn’t have let her keep babysitting if she wasn’t, and Shura actually _liked_ hanging around the little twerps. Not that she would ever admit that to anyone. Secretly, the twins were something like little brothers to her… and that was why Shura was going to break the shit out of Yuri’s last rule today.

“Four Eyes! Satan Junior! Got somethin’ special planned for you two today!” Shura called, surprising both boys enough that they nearly jumped out of their own skins. Rin’s flames flared, and he groaned upon seeing that the potato he’d been peeling looked much crispier than it was supposed to.

Rin threw away the potato and begrudgingly walked over to where Shura was standing, standing side by side with his twins. “Can’t you call us some different names?” Rin whined, with Yukio nodding support next to him. Usually, complaining only made her double down on her nicknames, but it was worth a try.

“Whatever you say, _Sparky_ ,” Shura said with a grin, causing the twins to roll their eyes in near perfect unison. “Like I said, I’ve got something special in mind for you and Spots today. You wanna hear about it or not?”

Both twins pouted silently for a few moments, but as expected, Rin couldn’t contain his curiosity and broke after less than a minute. “Okay, okay! What is it?!”

The grin on Shura’s face was absolutely diabolical, and Yukio began to worry. “We’re takin’ you outside the forest, kiddo.” Rin gave an excited yelp and began to jump up and down, glowing so brightly that his flames were nearly blinding; Yukio’s heart sank into his stomach.

He didn’t want to be, but Yukio knew he had to be the voice of reason here. How else could he keep Nii-san safe? Yukio knew his brother desperately wanted to go into the human world, but there was a reason Mother hadn’t allowed him out yet. She hated holding him back just as much as anyone else. “We need to think practically about this,” Yukio begged. “Nii-san, I know you’ve been working on your glamour and appearing human, but how good is it, really? And how long can you hold in your flames?”

Even though Yukio thought he’d worded his protests in the most neutral way possible, Rin still looked hurt and offended. “I can hold my flames in for— for _forever_ , if I have to! Watch, I’ll hold ‘em in and put on my glamour right now!” Rin sucked in a breath and the flames retreated inside his body, looking almost unfamiliar without his usual blue glow. At the same time, Rin’s very prominent demonic features softened slightly; his ears shrunk to something closer to human length, albeit still pointed, his claws retreated into sharp nails, and his fangs didn’t seem quite as large. Rin’s eyes stayed the same glowing cat’s eyes, however, and his tail still swished behind him. He looked at Yukio triumphantly. “See?”

“You forgot to tuck your tail in there, kiddo,” Shura leaned over and stage whispered. The boy quickly lifted his shirt and let his tail slide underneath, flustered.

Yukio wanted his Nii-san to be able to go outside, he really did. But he also wanted him to be safe from exorcists and anti-demon bigots, and his brother’s glamour wasn’t exactly in reassuring shape. “Nii-san, you can’t even get the point out of your ears yet!” Yukio said, reaching out to pinch one of the points. “And your eyes still _glow_! The ears can be explained away, but what are we supposed to do about the glowing?!”

“Sunglasses,” Shura said, pulling a pair out of her chest seal and sticking them on Rin’s face. They were dark enough to hide the glow from his eyes. “I’ve sat in on enough of his little ‘How to Human’ classes to know there’s some shit he still needs to work on. That’s why I also brought this,” she continued, pulling a gray hoodie out of her sternum like a clown pulling handkerchiefs out of its nose. She shoved it into Rin’s arms, and he immediately began to put it on. “Put this on and pull the hood up, and _bam_! He’s your average moody preteen. You can even pull your hands into your sleeves or put ‘em in the pockets to hide your claws.”

Once Rin had the hoodie on, he shoved his hands into the large pocket at the front. “See, Yuki? Shura-nee has everything all planned out.” Somehow, Yukio could tell Nii-san was giving him puppy eyes even without his eyes being visible.  
Being stuck inside the forest had taken its toll on Rin. They didn’t talk about it often, but everyone was aware; it was difficult not to be, with how often it would send Rin into moods. When they were younger, he’d thrown plenty of terrifying tantrums, especially when Yukio had to return to school after long breaks. Now that they were nearly eleven, Rin had gotten much better at controlling his temper and putting on a cheerful face for everyone. In Yukio’s opinion, that was even worse; Nii-san screaming and throwing chairs was terrifying, but hearing him cry softly at night when he thought Yukio wasn’t awake was the worst feeling in the world.

Yukio felt horribly guilty about disobeying his mother, but he also couldn’t bring himself to ruin this chance for his brother. If they really could manage to bring him out into the world safely, what was the harm in doing so just once before Mother said he was ready? Yukio sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, jostling his glasses upwards slightly. “Fine… but you’re going to need to stick close to us, Nii-san.”

Rin gave a loud squeal of excitement and pulled Yukio into his arms, crushing his twin’s ribcage ever so slightly. “Thank you Yuki, thank you! I’ll be on my best behavior, promise.” Pressed up against his brother like this, Yukio could feel the wriggling of Rin’s tail through the thick fabric of his hoodie.

“Please be careful,” Yukio said under his breath, hugging his brother back. Rin released him after a few moments, and Yukio inhaled deeply. “Where were you planning on taking us, Shura-nee? Because I don’t think we should head into Sakuoka,” Yukio said, folding his arms across his chest. Everyone in the village knew Yukio, and talk of him entering town with a skimpily dressed woman and a strange kid in a hoodie was bound to get around.

“Don’t worry, we’re on the same page there,” Shura said. “First stop is the bus station to Tsukuba City.”

Rin’s expression brightened even further, something Shura and Yukio honestly hadn’t thought possible. “I get to go on a _bus_?! To a _city_?!”

They didn’t even have to head into town to catch the bus. The bus stop bordered the forest and the village, and consisted of little more than a small bus shelter, a sign, and a nearby telephone booth. There was nobody else at the stop when they arrived.  
While they were in the forest, Rin had chattered nonstop, but he’d gone silent the second he wasn’t under the cover of the trees any longer. He couldn’t stop fidgeting with the strings of his hoodie.

“Are you doing okay, Nii-san?” Yukio asked quietly. Rin nodded, a fang worrying at his bottom lip; Yukio reached out and grabbed his brother’s hand. “You’ll do great,” he reassured his brother, smiling softly.

For so long, Rin had wanted nothing more than to go outside his forest. Now that it was actually happening, he was starting to feel completely out of his depth. He’d never been around people he didn’t know before; how was he supposed to act around them? What if they noticed he wasn’t human? Would they do something to him? What if they called the Order on him?  
Rin stepped back a little as the bus rolled up to the stop, feeling intimidated. He hadn’t known that on top of being full of people, buses would be so big or so _loud_. He let go of Yukio’s hand to cling to his arm.

“You’re alright,” Yukio murmured as they stepped onto the bus.

Rin didn’t _feel_ alright. Everything about the bus was overwhelming; the size, the smell of diesel, the bus driver looking at them, not to mention all the people in the back… Shura pressed a few coins into his hand, and he watched both Shura and Yukio drop the coins in a box next to the driver. Rin followed suit, returning to his brother’s side almost instantly and following him to some seats in a relatively unpopulated area of the bus.  
There were only a few other people on the bus aside from them, but it was still the most strangers Rin had ever seen in his entire life. He stared from underneath the safety of his sunglasses. Even if he wasn’t wearing sunglasses, he doubted any of the other riders would have noticed; they were all ignoring him for the most part, focused on their own lives. That soothed his nerves a little. Looking out the window was nice, too. The forested landscape eventually gave way to flat areas, full of rice paddies and small collections of houses. As the trip continued, more and more houses and buildings appeared, until the area was dominated by them. Was this Tsukuba?  
After what felt like an eternity, Shura pulled the yellow string and they stepped off the bus. For the first time in Rin’s life, there were no forests in sight— just streets, complete with buildings and cars. More people than Rin had ever seen in his life walked on the sidewalks and through crosswalks, going wherever they needed to go. “Wow, a city…”

Shura snorted. “Hardly,” she replied, shaking her head. “Remind me to take you to Tokyo sometime and really blow your mind, kid.”

“I’m applying to some places here for middle school,” Yukio said as they walked. Middle school was still two years away, but Yukio was already starting to prepare for entrance exams. He wanted to get in on scholarship, after all, and he’d have to work harder than most other kids because he didn’t have the advantage of going to actual cram school. His mother jokingly called their demonology and Taming lessons ‘cram school’, and while they were useful, he doubted any of it would come up on entrance exams to the places he was applying to. The only place he could think of it actually coming up was True Cross Academy, the high school where Uncle Shirou currently taught Cram School— the exorcism kind.  
True Cross Academy was not an option for Yukio. Anyone who knew his mother would immediately recognize him as her son due to the resemblance, and then the question of his parentage would come up. There was definitely an appeal to going to a school where plenty of people could see the same things he could, but it just wasn’t worth the danger of their family being discovered by the Vatican. And there was no way Nii-san would ever be able to visit, which was an intolerable notion for Yukio.

“Can we visit one of the schools Yuki wants to go to? Please? I wanna see a school,” Rin begged, turning to Shura. He’d never actually seen a school in person before, and since Rin had no idea when he’d be able to get out of the forest again…

“Fine, fine,” Shura said, waving her hand dismissively. “Honestly, only you two would wanna take time out of your day to visit a school on the weekend…” She began to look around for signage or maps, only to suddenly freeze in place like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oh _shit_ ,” she hissed, grabbing the twins by their arms.

Both boys tensed up as well; if Shura was afraid, that was very bad news. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Yukio asked, barely able to spot a short figure striding through the crowd.

“Ma,” Rin croaked, pale as a sheet. Sure enough, their mother approached with all the purpose and fury of an avenging angel. What were the chances they’d be in the same city, and that she would spot them? Rin had to have the worst luck in the entire world.

For such a small woman, Yuri Egin could stomp rather loudly when she was unhappy. She seemed to loom over the three of them despite barely reaching Shura’s chin. “Shura, were my instructions unclear?” The rest of her body language showed her anger, but her face and voice were eerily calm. Yukio shrunk behind Rin, who cowered behind Shura.

“No ma’am, they weren’t,” Shura said. Her mouth felt like it did after waking up after a night of drinking, except she wasn’t hungover.

Yuri smiled. It wasn’t a nice one. “Could you tell me why you thought taking both of my sons into a city without my permission was a good idea, then?”

“Uh, well—”

“I asked her to!” Rin blurted, still clinging to Shura. “It was all my idea. Yukio told me about Tsukuba and I wanted to go see it, so I made Shura take us.”

“We will talk about your role in this later, young man,” Yuri said, jabbing her index finger towards Rin. Her eyes darted towards her youngest son. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Yukio.” Yukio gulped, and the woman turned her attention back to Shura. “Even if Rin did ask you to take him here, which I doubt because Rin is a _terrible_ liar, you should have known better than to listen to him. You are twenty-one years old, Shura! Act like the adult!”

Shura felt her face growing hot; whether it was from anger, embarrassment, or both was anyone’s guess. “I _was_ acting like the adult, and that’s why I decided to take him outside!” She snapped, hands curling into fists. “I thought his glamour was good enough and that he could— no, _should_ see the world outside of his forest, and you know what? I was right!”

“I’m not debating this with you here,” Yuri said coldly, reaching out to grab her boys and pull them to her side. Both of them allowed her to do so without any protest; Rin hung his head in resignation, and Yukio was quite obviously close to tears. “We’re heading home. Now.”


	8. Jailbreak, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shura, Rin, and Yukio have to face the consequences of their ill-advised adventure.

The ride home was one of the worst experiences in Rin’s life so far, including the time he’d broken his leg and had it heal so wrong it needed to be snapped again and reset. Everyone was silent the entire time, with the notable exception of some sniffling from Yukio. The bus was a lot more crowded, too, which Rin didn’t like at all. Sitting next to a window ensured he was closer to fewer strangers, but being so close to everyone put him on edge.  
“It’s okay, Yukio,” Rin murmured, rubbing his brother’s back soothingly. Comforting his brother was a nice distraction from how terrible Rin himself felt. “None of this is your fault.”

“I sh-shouldn’t have listened to you and Shura,” Yukio said, rubbing at tearful eyes. “Wh-What if an ex— _someone else_ had found you instead of Mother? You could have been taken away from us, or k-killed!”

Rin had no response. He didn’t feel like that would have happened. He may not have looked entirely human like this, but he didn’t look like the son of Satan, either. Any exorcists who saw his muted demonic features would have assumed he was a regular half-demon, not a Nephil. Still… if an exorcist really had discovered him, Shura and Yukio would have never forgiven themselves.  
Had going outside really been worth that risk? Rin had seen too little of the outside world at this point to know, but he didn’t think it was _that_ great. There were a lot of new and interesting people, and the buildings were cool, but there were hardly any trees and the thought of actually interacting with any strangers was terrifying. What if they’d noticed the flash of fangs when he opened his mouth, or his flames slipped out at the worst moment?   
Rin didn’t actually know how normal people thought of demons. Yukio had told him that his classmates and teachers didn’t even know they really existed. He wondered how people would react if they saw the real him, without the hoodie or sunglasses or glamour. Would they stare at him? Scream? Would they get angry, like Shura had been when they first met?

Shura was sitting across the aisle from them, slouched with her arms folded across her stomach. She glared at some unseen point on the ground. Rin knew that she wasn’t angry at him, or even Ma really, but he still felt bad. He couldn’t help but feel like this entire mess was his fault. Rin doubted this would have happened if he had been born just a little bit more human. He didn’t even have to be completely human-looking like Yukio— if his ears had been a little shorter, and his flames more easily suppressed…  
Rin pressed his cheek against the window, staring at his faint reflection in the glass. He hardly recognized himself, but apparently even that wasn’t enough for him to live safely among humans. Who would he have to become for humans to accept him?

At some point, he felt a small tug on his sleeve and looked up to find his family was exiting the bus. Rin followed, and they continued the walk back to the cabin in absolute silence. It was nearly intolerable, but he didn’t want to be the person to break the silence. They all ended up continuing to stay silent right up until they found themselves sitting around the kitchen table in the cabin. Ma was the first to speak.

“Boys, why don’t you go to your room for a while?” Yuri said. Her voice was eerily calm. Both twins stood up and fled the room without a second thought, not wanting to be around for the yelling match that was sure to break out.

In their room, Rin considered trying to listen in on the adults talking, but thought better of it; all it would do was make him even more upset and nervous than he already was. Instead, he focused on taking off the shades, hoodie, and his glamour. Rin’s tail slipped out from underneath his shirt, and he gave a small sigh of relief once blue flames began to lick at his skin once again. “That’s better…”

Yukio sat down on his bottom bunk, watching his brother shed the various layers of his disguise. As soon as the glamour was off, Rin seemed to become more comfortable, more _himself_. He knew holding in the flames and appearing more human took a lot of effort for his brother, but it had never occurred to Yukio that it could be physically unpleasant. “…Is it uncomfortable?”

Rin froze during his stretching, turning to look at Yukio. “Huh? What d’you mean?”

“Y-Your glamour. And holding in the flames,” Yukio elaborated, hands clasped in his lap. “Does it hurt to do that?”

“It doesn’t _hurt_ ,” Rin said, furrowing his brow. He had a look on his face that usually meant he was struggling to word his thoughts in Japanese. “It just feels… tiring. I probably just gotta get used to it, like I got used to speakin’ Japanese.”

Yukio frowned. His brother had struggled with the language for years; his speech was basically normal now, but it simply wasn’t as intuitive as Gehennan was for him. Yukio suspected speaking Japanese actually strained Rin’s throat at times, but his twin never complained about it. He never complained about any of the work he had to do to fit into the human world.

Both twins grimaced as shouting began to leak through the door of their room; Yukio could pick out bits and pieces, which meant his brother was able to hear just about everything. They both looked at each other before standing up in unison, pressing their ears against the door.

* * *

If there was one thing raising twins had taught Yuri, it was that things rarely went as planned. Very rarely was this a good thing; most of the time, it was just a pain in the ass. For example, Yuri had gone to Tsukuba City to visit the library and pick up sculpting supplies— instead, she found her two sons and Shura in one of the last places they should have been.

So now she was interrogating Shura when she should have been running errands. Running errands probably would have been more productive; Shura was unrepentant and remorseless for risking Rin’s exposure, and talking to her was doing little more than making Yuri’s blood boil.

“I don’t think you realize what kind of danger you put my sons in,” Yuri said, pacing back and forth. She felt like she was going to wear a hole in the hardwood if this kept up. “Both of them, since you took them both out of the house without telling me where you were going, but Rin especially. He’s never been outside of this forest, and you take him to a _city_? What were you _thinking_?!”

Shura rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. “I was thinkin’ the kid is pretty good at glamouring himself, and that you’re bein’ way too careful. He handled it just fine, didn’t he?”

“He wasn’t even in Tsukuba for an hour. He didn’t even interact with anyone other than the bus drivers! The only reason this went so ‘well’ is because I cut things short before they could go south,” Yuri said. “Would you know what to do if he got overwhelmed? If his glamour started slipping? Would you even be able to recognize if those things were happening?” Shura was silent, which Yuri took as a concession. “Rin was supposed to be eased into this slowly,” she continued. “I had everything all planned out, and you just threw him into the deep end!”

“I’d love to see your plan,” Shura snarled, folding her arms across her chest. “If you got your way, he’d never leave! You just want to keep him here forever!”

Yuri could feel her face growing hot as her pulse thrummed in her veins. “How _dare_ you,” she growled, seeing red. “Why do you think I teach him how to glamour himself and act human, if that’s the case? Because I like giving him false hope? I truly did have plans to take him outside myself, but I apologize if they didn’t move quickly enough for you!”

Shura scoffed. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“I don’t have to convince you of anything! I’m his mother,” Yuri said, stabbing at her own chest with an index finger. Even Shirou didn’t have that kind of authoritative input on how Yuri raised her kids, and she regularly went to him for advice. Yuri was the one who had the final say on how to raise her children— end of story. “If you won’t listen to my instructions, I’m afraid I won’t be able to let you around Rin and Yukio—”

The door to the twins’ room burst open with a bang, and Rin scrambled into the main area of the cabin with Yukio following close behind. “ _NO!_ ” Rin shouted, the entire room awash in the glow of his flames.

Some of the anger drained out of Yuri’s expression. She should have known her sons were listening in, even if they weren’t in the room; she regretted her anger and some of her harshness. Still, she had meant every word she said. “Go back into your room, boys. This discussion isn’t about you.”

“The only reason you’re so mad at Shura-nee is ‘cause of me!” Rin’s Gehennan accent was more prominent than it had been in a while, warping and adding a harsh undertone to his words. It made him sound angry, but his expression was one of a child close to tears. “None of this would even be a problem i-if I was more human!”

“Nii-san—” Yukio reached out to his twin, only for Rin to stubbornly nudge his arm away.

“Oh, Rin…” Both Shura and Yuri sighed, nearly in unison. While Shura’s expression was merely one of resigned sorrow, Yuri was horrified. Part of the reason she’d been so hesitant to let him into the human world was the fear anti-demon sentiment would make Rin dislike himself; had she caused the very result she’d been desperate to prevent? From the time the twins were small, Yuri had pointed out good things about being a demon any chance she got. She couldn’t completely shield him from Satan’s reputation, that was something he had to know for his own safety, but she’d done her best to soften the blow by providing examples of good demons— even inventing stories when she had to.  
Yuri saw now that all the stories and songs in the world couldn’t have kept Rin from resenting the features that kept him from leaving the forest for so long. It was inevitable that being hidden would make him feel like he was something shameful, something _wrong_. How could Yuri have prevented this? Hiding Rin was a necessity for his own safety, but had she been too cautious? She hated to admit it, but Shura may have been onto something.

“Come here, honey,” Yuri said softly, beckoning to Rin. The boy walked towards her hesitantly before allowing her to pull him into her arms. “Even if you were completely human, I’d still be angry with Shura for taking you to Tsukuba without telling me. If I’d gotten home and nobody was there, I would have been terrified that something happened.” She may have been speaking directly to Rin, but she was subtly addressing everyone else in the room with her words. Apparently, none of them had considered Yuri’s reaction to finding her home empty before now.  
Yuri took a deep breath. “What Shura did was wrong, and she definitely should have done it, _but_ … It made me realize I should have taken you out into the human world sooner,” she admitted. “I was so worried about the world hurting you, I didn’t realize how much I was hurting you by keeping you from it. I’m sorry, Rin.”

“ ‘S okay, Mama,” Rin said, returning his mother’s embrace and laying his head on her shoulder. Yuri smiled at the faint rumble of a purr at the back of his throat; it was a sound she hadn’t heard in a while, not since Yukio had started school.

Yuri turned her attention to her youngest son, who rushed into the group hug the minute she made eye contact with him. “And I understand why you went along with all of this, Yukio,” she said gently. “You just wanted to make your brother happy, didn’t you?” She felt Yukio nod and burrow deeper into her arms.

Shura leaned back on her chair until it was balancing on the back two legs. “Do _I_ get an apology?”

Yuri rolled her eyes. “Don’t push it, Shura. You’re not banned from the cabin, but you’re going to need to earn back babysitting privileges.”

The chair landed on all fours again with a small thud. Folding her arms across her chest, Shura shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“And I’m still grounding the both of you,” Yuri said, ignoring the groaning of her sons. Shura looked somewhat vindicated, no longer alone in her punishment. “Yukio, you’re going to head home immediately from school for the next week. No library trips. And Rin, you’re going to need to wait about a week for your first trip outside with me.”

“But you said you understood why we went with Shura-nee,” Yukio whined.

“Understanding doesn’t mean approving, now does it?”

Yukio continued to argue his point, but Rin wasn’t complaining. In his punishment he’d spotted a hint of something wonderful— he was going to be able to go outside again, and Ma was going to take him this time. Waiting another week sucked, but what was one more week compared to the years he’d waited for this already? Besides, it gave him more time to work on the finer points of his glamour that still needed improvement. Rin didn’t want to need training wheels like an oversized hoodie and sunglasses just to go outside. He doubted he’d perfect his technique any time soon, but if he could stop his eyes from glowing he’d be right on track.  
He was going to be able to go outside with Ma! Rin kept coming back to that, over and over; his tail wouldn’t stop wagging at the thought.


	9. Jailbreak, Epilogue

Exactly seven days after Rin’s first foray into the human world, Yuri Egin was awoken by the thump of a ten year old throwing himself onto her bed. “ **C’mon, Ma, wake up! Let’s go!** ” Rin exclaimed in Gehennan, bouncing up and down excitedly; even without opening her eyes, his flames were bright enough that a faint blue glow came through Yuri’s eyelids.

“I’m getting up, be patient,” Yuri said as she sat up, although she was unable to keep herself from smiling. A glance at her alarm clock said it was 7 in the morning, but Rin was fully dressed— and literally bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to boot. “When did you wake up?”

“ **…A few hours ago? I couldn’t sleep, I was too excited,** ” he said. “ **I made breakfast and tried waking Yukio up but he growled at me so I’m letting him sleep and where are we gonna go today?** ”

It was much too early for Yuri to be deciphering Gehennan at the speed Rin was blurting things out, but she tried her best. He so rarely spoke the language nowadays, and he’d have no choice but to speak Japanese for the rest of the day. “One thing at a time, honey. Why don’t we focus on breakfast first?”

The meal went by quickly; Yukio wandered in and joined them rather early on, although he didn’t eat much. Rin was only interested in scarfing down his food as quickly as possible. He waited impatiently for his mother while she ate at a normal, human pace, then sprung up from the table as soon as she’d eaten the last bite. “ **All done! Are we going now?** ”

“Rin. You and your brother may be dressed, but I’m not,” Yuri said with a raised brow, gesturing to her nightgown. Rin scratched at the nape of his neck sheepishly. “I’m glad you’re so excited, honey, but you need to be just a little more patient, okay?”

He nodded. “ **Sorry,** ” Rin mumbled, tail curling around his ankle. His unencumbered leg bounced underneath the table; he’d never been good at waiting calmly and patiently, but it felt more unbearable than ever.

While their mother got dressed, Rin and Yukio worked on the last finishing touches of Rin’s glamour. He’d finally figured out how to keep his eyes from glowing, although fully rounding off the points of his ears and dulling his fangs still eluded him. His nails were shorter than usual, yet still peculiarly pointed and sharp. And of course, there was the added complication that Rin’s glamour was purely visual; anyone who shook his hand would feel his full claws, and the full length of his ears could be felt if one felt around the side of his head.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Nii-san. Nobody is going to touch you,” Yukio reassured his twin.

“What about on the bus? People packed in real close last time,” Rin said, hugging himself. He hoped they wouldn’t have to ride many buses this time. They had too many people jammed into one small space and the engine of the bus was loud.

“For someone to figure you out, they’d have to hold your hand or put their hands on their head. If a stranger does either of those things, we have bigger problems.” Even the strangest, creepiest people public transport had to offer wouldn’t be so invasive. “Humans are very good at seeing what they think they should see,” Yukio added. “They expect a human boy, so that’s exactly what they’ll see. Even if your glamour isn’t perfect.” Yukio knew this from personal experience; the reflective quality of his eyes, the one demonic trait he shared with his twin, had never been commented on in all of his years interacting with humans. The eerie glow that showed up in flash photography was always attributed to poor lighting.

Rin’s tail twitched nervously underneath his shirt as he turned to look at himself in the mirror, frowning. He couldn’t see himself as a human, no matter how hard he tried. Was it because Rin expected himself to be a demon, just like Yukio said the humans would expect him to be one of them? “Are you sure?” He trusted Yukio knew what he was talking about, but how could he not worry? The dangers of the human world had been drilled into his head from the moment he’d understood there was a world outside the forest.

Yukio smiled at his brother, trying to put him at ease. If Rin could just relax, Yukio was sure he’d adapt to the outside world in no time at all; his older brother had always been personable. “I’m sure, Nii-san.”

Yuri exited her room, grabbing her purse and jacket. “Alright, let’s go!”

* * *

 

The bus they took this time was much older and nowhere near as crowded. It might have been on a different route entirely, but Rin couldn’t be sure; he hardly had enough experience with buses to tell those kinds of things. His family sat near the back of the bus, with Rin sandwiched between his mother and brother. It felt like they were only on the bus for a few minutes before his mother pulled on the yellow string and ushered them off.

“Stay close to me,” Yuri told her sons— which turned out to be unnecessary, as Rin had already attached himself to her side. This place was much smaller and less crowded than Tsukuba City, but he still didn’t feel confident enough to risk getting separated from his family.

Yukio, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease. He stood a short distance away from his mother and brother; Rin got the feeling he’d been to this town before. “Where are we going first?”

“I was thinking the library might be a good idea,” Yuri replied. “How does that sound to you two?” Yukio nodded enthusiastically, but Rin was a bit less excited. The library didn’t seem very interesting.

“Can we go to the grocery store?” Rin asked, tugging on his mother’s sleeve. It was his first real outing, so it was only fair that he decided where they would go. Books were okay, especially when Ma or Yukio would read them aloud, but the grocery store appealed to Rin much more. He’d always wanted to accompany his mother grocery shopping.

“We’ll save that for last, so that we don’t have to worry about carrying around a bunch of grocery bags,” Yuri said. Rin had to admit that made sense… he would just have to be patient. In the meantime, going to the library didn’t sound so bad.

They entered a short, squat building that smelled exactly like all the books Yuri and Yukio sometimes brought home. There was a desk with a woman paging through a book behind it, a few more desks with some machines unfamiliar to Rin on top of them, and shelves upon shelves of books. There were more books in this small building than Rin had seen in his entire life.   
Yukio made a beeline for a shelf labeled ‘Science Fiction’, but Rin stayed right next to his mother. Instead of looking at the books, his attention was drawn to the bulky, grey boxes sitting on the desks.

“Ma, what are those?” Rin asked, tugging on her sleeve and pointing to one of the boxes.

“Those are computers,” Yuri said. “I’ve told you about them, haven’t I?” Rin nodded. She had nearly forgotten that Rin wouldn’t have had a chance to see one in person before now; a home computer was much too expensive for their budget, and too much of a drain on the generator they used to power the cabin to justify buying. “Would you like to try using one? I can walk you through it.”

Rin nodded enthusiastically and sat down in front of one of the computers. There was a blue screen with all sorts of small pictures on it, with titles below them that said things like ‘Internet Explorer’ and ‘Microsoft Word’. “Cool,” he breathed. “…How do I use it?”  
Yuri walked her son through some of the basics, and was surprised by how quickly he caught on. The only thing he had an issue with was typing; the keyboard used Roman letters, which Rin often mixed up with each other. It ceased to be an issue once Rin happened across the part of the Internet that appealed to him most— _games_. He could have spent hours playing with what he'd found, but his mother eventually tore him away from the computer and told him to go look for a book.  
Rin complied, begrudgingly. He didn’t hate books like he had when he’d first started to read, but he didn’t love them like his mother and brother did. Most of them were about boring things, and few of them had pictures. He liked manga and light novels best. Rin wandered over to the shelf Yukio was still browsing, tilting his head to the side and silently mouthing some of the titles. Yukio was paging through an annoyingly thick book.

“Whatcha readin’?”

Yukio gasped, clutching the book to his chest. After turning back to see it was just Rin, he sighed and shook his head. “Don’t sneak up on me,” he said, frowning. “What did you want?”

“I was just wonderin’ what you were reading,” Rin said, leaning against the bookcase. Holding the glamour was starting to get uncomfortable, but he pushed the sensation out of his mind. “Ma says I should pick out a book to bring home, but I don’t know where to start. I thought you might have somethin’ in mind.”

Yukio closed his book and tucked it under his arm. “I think I can find a few things you’d like,” he said with a small smile. He immediately led Rin to a shelf near the back, which was chock full of light novels and manga upon closer inspection.

“This library has a manga section?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Rin exclaimed, prompting Yukio to shush him fervently. “Sorry, geez…”

“Slipped my mind,” Yukio replied with a shrug. Rin got to work perusing the shelves, and quickly settled upon taking out the first books of a few series he hadn’t read yet that caught his eye. “Come on, let’s meet up with Mother and get you a card so you can check those out.”

The twins made their way to the front desk, where they found their mother checking her own books out. “Yukio said I need to get a library card,” Rin said.

“I can help you with that,” the lady sitting behind the desk said. She smiled at Rin, who was fighting the urge to duck behind his brother; this was the most he’d ever said to a stranger before.

“She’s the librarian, Nii-san,” Yukio whispered in his brother’s ear, subtly pushing him towards the desk. Rin still eyed her warily. Although Rin knew he was wearing his glamour— he could feel the mental effort he was exerting —he still glanced down at his hands nervously, as if to check that he still looked human.

The librarian pushed a sheet of paper and a pen towards Rin, not bothered by his sudden shyness. “Fill this out for me, please.” Rin did exactly as she asked, although he floundered a bit on what family name to use for the card. Should he use Okumura like his brother, or Egin like Ma? Apparently, Yukio’s last name was meant to imply that he had a father with that name, to ‘throw people off the trail’. Ma had explained it to Rin at some point, but he didn’t really get it. He had to admit there was a certain ring to Okumura Rin…  
Rin didn’t know the kanji Yukio used for their last name, though. And asking would probably seem suspicious. Ma’s family name was written in katakana, Rin knew that for sure— which meant he definitely knew how to write it out. A few short minutes later, Egin Rin had a shiny new library card and his knapsack was filled with his books. He was still beaming with pride as they stepped out of the library, feeling very much like a Big Kid.

It was beginning to get more difficult to maintain his glamour, but Rin didn’t say anything; he knew his mother would make him leave before going to the supermarket if she found out he was having difficulty continuing to look human. He could probably hold it for at least another hour, so there was no need to worry her. Rin just needed to concentrate a little harder.

“Nii-san?”

Rin jerked suddenly, brought back to the outside world by his brother’s voice. “Huh? What is it?”

Yukio frowned. “Nii-san, is something wrong? You seem out of it.”

“I’m fine,” Rin said with a wave of his hand. “I just got distracted, that’s all.”

“If you say so…” Yukio was clearly skeptical, but didn’t press his older brother any further. “Maybe you would feel a bit better if we ate?” Yukio was feeling a bit hungry himself, which meant Rin was probably starving.

“Good idea, Yukio,” Yuri said warmly, giving Yukio an affectionate pat on the arm. “Now, let’s go find— Rin!”

The bike seemed to appear out of nowhere, nearly knocking Rin over as it sped down the sidewalk. The boy dodged just in time, assisted by his mother’s quick reflexes— but the shock broke his concentration. Yuri could only look on in horror as Rin’s appearance returned to its natural state. No flames appeared, thankfully, but Yuri still pulled Rin into her arms in an attempt to provide some cover before ducking into the nearest alleyway. Yukio followed close behind.  
Everything happened so quickly that by the time Rin regained his bearings and extracted himself from his mother’s embrace, they were already in the alley. What had happened? He remembered a bike rushing towards him, but he didn’t feel hurt… just disoriented, and a little drained. “Ma? What happened?”

“That bike must have shocked you enough for you to drop your glamour,” Yuri said. Her voice was calm, but she couldn’t keep the urgent, worried look out of her eyes.

Rin’s heart began to pound, and a hand reached up towards his ear. “D-Did anyone see?” He was starting to regret not telling his mother sooner about how difficult holding the glamour had gotten. He felt like he’d pushed himself to the very limit of what he could do, and not in a good way.

“No, but you should still pull it on again so that we can take you home,” Yukio said.

“I’m trying,” Rin replied, gritting his teeth. He tried to summon up whatever power within him he used to make his glamour, but he felt nothing. “I don’t think I can do it…” Tears began to well up in Rin’s eyes. If he couldn’t get his glamour to work, what were they going to do? Why didn’t he just tell Ma when he’d first started to feel the strain? It wasn’t like he was going to be able to go to the grocery store now, anyways.

“What do you mean, you can’t do it?” Yukio asked, brows furrowed. “You were holding your glamour just fine the whole day!”

“I…I think there’s a limit for how much I can use it in a day,” Rin admitted. He couldn’t look Ma or Yukio in the eye. “It was starting to get harder to keep looking human, but I didn’t wanna say anything ‘cause I didn’t wanna go home yet. I’m sorry,” he said, lip trembling as he rubbed at his eye.

Yuri sighed, heart aching with sympathy. She felt like she should scold him for not telling her, but wasn’t he suffering enough already? “We’ll go to the grocery store for sure next time, okay? First thing.”

“B-But I wanted to go _today_!” Rin burst into tears, too exhausted and upset to be embarrassed by how childish he was acting. He’d never been so frustrated by his own limitations before. All that time training and perfecting his glamour, and he couldn’t stay outside for longer than a few hours? “It’s not fair,” he muttered, wiping at his eyes. Nobody else had to put this much effort into going into the human world for so little reward, not even Rin’s own brother.

“I know it’s frustrating, sweetheart, but I’m sure you’ll be able to hold your glamour for longer with more practice,” Yuri said, placing a hand on Rin’s back. “But from now on, you need to tell me when you think you’re reaching your limit, okay?” Rin nodded with a small sniffle, calming a little. Now, she just needed to figure out a way to get him home without attracting too much attention…   
While not as baggy and concealing as the gray one Shura had thrown on him, Rin was wearing a hoodie. Yuri gently pulled the hood up, then adjusted some of Rin’s hair so that it better covered the parts of his ears the hood couldn’t conceal. There was nothing she could do about his fangs or glowing, catlike eyes, but people without Temptaints were rarely very observant. “That should do well enough for the bus ride home,” she said, trying to project confidence.

“W-We’re still going on the bus?” Yuri’s confidence had apparently not transferred over to Rin very well. Even Yukio, who was trying his best to stay calm for his brother’s sake, looked concerned. “B-But somebody’s gonna notice! And they’ll start screaming, and calling me names—”

“Rin.”

“And what if they want to hurt you an’ Yuki? Or they call the Exorcists—”

“I will do _everything_ in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Yuri said, her voice solemn and full of conviction. “Look at me, Rin.” He looked up; his pupils were so wide that they nearly looked round. “I’ve kept the both of you safe for this long, haven’t I?” Rin nodded, looking a bit more at ease. One day, her sons would have to learn their mother couldn’t protect them from everything… but it wouldn’t be today if Yuri had anything to say about it.

“I’ll help you blend in too, Nii-san,” Yukio chimed in, grabbing his brother’s hand. “Humans see what they want to see, remember?” Rin nodded again and gave his twin’s hand a small squeeze. The corners of Yuri’s lips lifted upwards into a small smile; she was far from a perfect parent, but she took pride in raising sons who looked out for each other.

With that final boost of confidence, the family headed out of the alleyway and towards the nearest bus stop. Once again, Rin had his mother on one side and Yukio on the other; the boy walked with his hands tucked in his pockets to hide his claws, never letting his eyes leave the ground. It was difficult not to look up and glance around, especially once they got to the stop and had to wait for their bus to arrive. He listened intently for the sound of the bus arriving, picking up snippets of conversations and the general sounds of the town in the meantime. It was nowhere near as loud as Tsukuba, but still much noisier than the quiet forest Rin was used to.  
A small snort from Yukio made Rin look up. “What is it? Did you see something funny?”

Yukio’s lips were twitching. “No, it’s just… I only noticed because we’re standing right next to each other, but I can see your ears move underneath your hoodie. A _lot_ ,” he whispered, clearly holding back shaky laughter. “They’re going crazy!”

“It’s loud,” Rin muttered with a pout. His ears pressed flat against the sides of his head as he tightened the drawstrings on his hood. They’d always had a tendency to move in the direction of sounds without any conscious effort on Rin’s part; he usually didn’t mind, but he wasn’t usually around a bunch of strange humans, either.

Before Yuri could chime in and warn Yukio to stop picking on his brother, their bus rolled up to the curb. She felt a small, clawed hand grab hers. Yuri gave her sons a reassuring smile, squeezing Rin’s hand before stepping onto the bus.

The bus was a bit less empty this time around, although they were still able to find three seats near each other. Once again, Rin found himself sitting next to a window, with Yukio in the row in front of him and his mother at his side. He stared out the window for the entire ride home, not wanting to risk eye contact with any other passengers. Although Rin was exhausted and the motion of the bus would have lulled him to sleep in any other circumstance, napping on the bus never occurred to him as a possibility. Nobody had given him so much as a second glance so far, but he still felt exposed and unsafe. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the countryside gave way to dense forest, and Yukio was the one to pull the yellow string for their stop.

The three gave a collective sigh of relief once they stepped off the bus. They were safe, and had somehow miraculously avoided having Rin attract too much attention without his glamour. The closer they got to their cabin, the more Rin began to let down his guard; his hands came out of his pockets first, then the hood came down, but his flames didn’t reappear until Rin stepped inside his home.   
Rin inhaled deeply once the flames returned, as if he’d been holding his breath. He winced a little when letting his tail slip out from underneath his hoodie; having his tail in such a strange position for so long had made him sore with exertion. It was probably something he’d just have to get used to.

“I just realized that we never got to eat,” Yuri said sheepishly. She had been so anxious about Rin being outside without his glamour, she’d completely forgotten her hunger. Now that the crisis had been averted, her stomach was beginning to protest again. “Do you boys want anything?”

“I wanna sleep,” Rin said, barely holding back a yawn. He was too tired to feel his own hunger, or even make his way to his bed. The boy flopped onto the couch and fell asleep the second his head hit the cushions.

“Well, there’s his answer,” Yukio sighed. Rin was acting exactly the same as he did when he overused his flames or summoned a demon a bit too powerful for too long; he’d fall asleep immediately, then wake up ravenous. There was no telling how long this nap would last. Sometimes, Rin would only be asleep for a few hours… and other times, he’d be out for the entire day. But he always woke up eventually.

Yuri watched her son sleep with some mild concern; she hadn’t realized how draining holding a glamour could be for him. Rin had never had any issues during their practice sessions— then again, he’d only been maintaining a glamour for half an hour at most during those sessions. She would have to watch him much more carefully when they were outside next. Yuri could only hope that with time, his stamina would improve and Rin would be able to maintain a glamour for longer amounts of time. Yuri tugged a blanket off the back of the couch, gingerly laying over her eldest. Rin didn’t even twitch. “Let’s go make some lunch, Yukio. Your brother is probably going to eat everything in sight once he wakes up…”

While Rin’s first real venture outside didn’t go quite as planned, it wasn’t the disaster it could have been, either. Yuri was incredibly grateful for that. Now that she knew what to look out for, she was hopeful that their future excursions would go much more smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I finished it just in time for the twins' birthday! This chapter was a bit difficult for me to find the muse to write, but there should be more chapters coming out soon. Consider it a Christmas/birthday/Kwanzaa/New Year's present for you all ;)


	10. Witch Boy

Yukio’s classmates and even Uncle Shirou seemed convinced leaving Math to the very last class period was cruel, but Yukio didn’t mind it at all. Like the other children, his attention span was usually beginning to waver by the time last period rolled around— but instead of zoning out like the other kids, he responded by getting his work done as quickly as possible. The faster he finished his daily worksheets or grasped whatever concept they were covering, the sooner Yukio could quietly work on something else or just goof off.  
Usually, Yukio kept his ‘goofing off’ subtle. He would work on homework for other classes or doodle in his notebook instead of taking notes. He was doing something a little riskier today; instead of writing on the notebook currently open on his desk, Yukio had his eyes glued to the book on his lap. It was one Yukio was helping his brother read through, but it was interesting enough that Yukio chose to read it in his own free time. Most fantasy books got too much about their world wrong to be enjoyable, but boy wizards and magic schools were far enough removed from reality for both twins to like it.

“That doesn’t look like our math textbook, Okumura-kun,” Sugihara-sensei said, meter stick gently pressing on the pages. _Busted._ His tone was more teasing than scolding; Yukio was a good student, and most of his teachers seemed fond of him. It didn’t make the quiet snickers of his classmates any easier to bear.

Yukio felt the tips of his ears grow warm and red. “I-I got finished with the practice problems already.” _And I wanted to read,_ he thought to himself. He was practically addicted to his new book, to the point where it made focusing on his classes difficult. How was he supposed to focus on greatest common factors? Yukio had to read ahead from where he and Rin had left off reading aloud last night; it made helping Nii-san with reading it easier, after all. It definitely wasn’t because he couldn’t wait to know what happened next.

Sugihara-sensei sighed. “I’m sure you did, but you still need to follow along with the rest of the class.” The hot flush formerly confined to his ears spread to the rest of Yukio’s face. He closed the book, Sugihara-sensei smiled gently, and he went back to talking about factors.

Yukio still wasn’t paying attention— and judging from the whispering his classmates were doing, neither was anyone else. Teasing him and gossiping was way more interesting. He may not have had Nii-san’s ears, but the few bits and pieces Yukio did catch were enough.

“Harry Potter… isn’t that the book about the wizards?” One of his classmates whispered to his friend.

“Makes sense Witch Boy is reading it, then.”

Yukio shoved the book into his desk and pulled out his math textbook, flipping to the advanced problems he was working on outside of class. Math wasn’t his favorite subject, but methodically working through the problems always managed to calm him down. Focusing on numbers made it easy to ignore whispered comments and snide glances.  
He didn’t mind the nickname itself, really. There was a small grain of truth in it; if the residents of Sakuoka found out both he and his mother could summon demons, they’d think it witchcraft for sure. And that wasn’t even getting into Yukio’s parentage or Nii-san’s existence…

“Probably required reading at his house…”

The lead of Yukio’s pencil threatened to snap in two. That was what bothered him most about the way everyone treated him and his family; they all assumed things and then spread those falsehoods around. It worked to his family’s advantage and kept people from getting too nosy, but it didn’t stop Yukio from finding it annoying. He wished he could be like his mother and take things less seriously; she always seemed amused by outlandish rumors more than anything. “Nothing they come up with could be stranger than the truth,” she’d told Yukio once.  
She was right. None of them had ever gotten close to figuring out Yukio had a secret twin, and he doubted they’d believe who his father was if he told them himself. The son of a witch was one thing, but a son of Satan? Yukio could say with certainty the possibility had never crossed their minds. Which was a good thing; rumors were irritating, but nowhere near as dangerous as the truth.

Before he knew it, the final class bell chimed. The other children began chatting and packing up, filing out of the room in small groups. Eventually, only three kids were left in the room: Yukio, Yamato, and Ariwara. This put Yukio on edge. Why were they staying behind? Yukio didn’t look up from his book bag, but he swore he could feel their eyes boring into his skull.  
Yamato and Ariwara were an inseparable pair, brothers in all but name. They even looked like siblings— more than Yukio did with his own twin, which admittedly wasn’t a very high bar. Yamato was tall and gangly while Ariwara was slightly more stout, but they both wore the same unflattering haircut. Along with their hairdresser, they also shared a love of being loud and aggressive. And bothering Yukio, of course.

“Okumura.” Yukio ignored Yamato at first, and he leaned down to get in Yukio’s face. “Oi, Okumura! You deaf or something?”

Yukio kept his face neutral. Humans were different from demons in many ways, but they had one thing in common— it was important not to show weakness in front of someone unfriendly. “What is it?”

“You live in the forest, don’t you?” Ariwara chimed in. Yukio nodded, eyeing the other two suspiciously. “Have you heard about the demon who lives in there? Have you seen it?”

“A-A demon?” Yukio asked. He tried his best to play off the quaver in his voice as fear. He _was_ afraid… just not for the reasons his classmates assumed. “I-I haven’t heard anything about that. Or seen anything. Sounds scary! Well, I have to go—”

Yamato was the one to interrupt him, pulling himself up to his full height. “We’re gonna find it,” he announced proudly. “We’ll show everyone it’s not just a silly campfire story.” Yukio swore he could feel his stomach drop; his dismay must have leaked into his facial expression because the two bullies were grinning like jackals.

“Since you live there, we figured we’d ask you where to start. But since you don’t know, and you’re too chicken to even think about facing a demon, we’ll leave you alone now,” Ariwara said haughtily. Yukio never struggled with violent impulses like his Nii-san, but punching Ariwara in his smug, dumb face felt tempting.

Yukio would have laughed at how wrong Ariwara was if the situation weren’t so serious. There was a chance, however slight, that the pair would come across his unsuspecting brother and send their well-kept secret tumbling down. He had to warn his family, preferably before the pair stepped foot in the forest. “Okay, have fun,” Yukio said, slinging his bag over his shoulder and speed-walking out of the room. Ariwara and Yamato could only stand there and watch, more confused than ever by Yukio’s bizarre behavior.

Yukio had no choice but to stay calm and speed-walk as subtly as possible in Sakuoka, but broke into a sprint as soon as he was under the cover of the forest. “Nii-san! Nii-san!” He cried, ignoring the way his chest and throat burned as he ran. He could use his inhaler once he found his brother— he had to intercept Rin before his classmates got to him first.

Rin dropped in front of Yukio from his spot in a tree, tensed as if ready for a fight. The fur on his tail stood on end. “What is it? Are you in danger?”

“No, you are,” Yukio said breathlessly, tugging his brother behind a bush. “Dim your flames. They might see you.” He wanted to explain more, but it was starting to feel like he was breathing through a straw.

Rin extinguished his flames almost completely, with the exception of his flame horns. “Who’s they? Exorcists?”

Yukio shook his head and pulled out his rescue inhaler, taking a few puffs. He grimaced a little from the taste of the medication before responding. “Yamato and Ariwara, two of my classmates from school,” he responded. “They heard there’s a demon in this forest. Nii-san, have you revealed yourself to anyone?”

“Of course not!” Rin exclaimed, punctuating the sentence with a loud thump of his tail. “I never go near humans without my glamour. I don’t like getting screamed at.”

“I believe you,” said Yukio. He should have known better than to think his brother would have revealed himself on purpose. In any case, how they knew about Rin didn’t matter at this point— what they were going to do about it was much more important. “I might have an idea,” Yukio said, “but you’re going to have to trust me.”

* * *

Yamato and Ariwara crept through the forest, trying their best not to make a sound. It was eerily silent; every broken branch and leaf crunched underfoot seemed to echo. The trees loomed above them, slender yet massive.

“What are we even gonna do once we find him?” Ariwara whispered.

“Take pictures, duh,” Yamato said, pulling out a disposable camera. “Leave the demon fighting to those Exorcist guys. They’ll definitely call one in once we show them photos.” That made sense to Ariwara, so he nodded and they continued walking deeper into the forest.  
The longer they walked, the jumpier they got; soon, the boys were twitching at every rustling branch. Yamato had snapped pictures of empty trees and bushes on reflex at least half a dozen times. They were beginning to consider going back home when suddenly, a disheveled Okumura barreled into them. Ariwara had to bite down on his lip to stifle a high pitched scream, and Yamato swore he nearly wet his pants.

“Okumura, what are you doing here?!” Yamato hissed. The longer he looked at Okumura, the more worried he got; the boy’s usually pristine shirt was wrinkled and untucked, his glasses were askew, and there were twigs and leaves in his hair. He’d clearly been running since he was wheezing from the exertion like he did during gym class.

“You both need to get out of here,” Yukio said, grabbing hold of Ariwara’s arm. “It’s not safe for any of us to be here, he’ll find us any minute—”

With a bloodcurdling snarl, something which could only be described as a demon emerged from the foliage. It was shaped like a human boy about their age, but with sharp fangs, claws, and a tail that lashed whiplike behind it. “WHO DARES TREADS PAST MY FOREST?” It snarled. Although it spoke Japanese, the demon’s voice had a terrible growling, distorted aspect to it made the monster sound all the more otherworldly.

Ariwara could have sworn he heard Okumura mutter “trespass” under his breath, but he and Yamato were both too busy screaming with fright to care.

“Don’t kill us!”

“Please, we’re so young!”

“SHUT UP!” The demon snapped. “DON’T COME INTO MY FOREST AND TELL ME WHAT TO DO! AND DON’T YOU BRING ONE OF THOSE HUMAN INVENTIONS NEAR ME!” Yamato couldn’t see any flames, but the camera in his hands melted and disintegrated into ashes as if he’d thrown it in a fire. The demon turned its attention towards Yukio, who was shaking. His hands were curled into fists and his teeth dug into his bottom lip. “You brought the other humans here,” the demon said, pointing an accusing claw at him. It reached out and plucked Okumura away from the other two schoolboys, ignoring their futile attempts to hold onto their classmate. “For that, you will die!”

“Run! Save yourselves!” Okumura cried as the demon dragged him away from the other two, clawing at the arm wrapped around his neck.

Neither Yamato nor Ariwara needed to be told twice. With little more than a “We’ll never forget you, Okumura!”, they ran screaming and crying out of the forest. The sounds of snarling and Okumura’s screams rang in their ears, even after they were long out of the woods.

“…Okay, I think they’re gone,” Yukio said a few minutes after they were out of earshot, gently extracting himself from his brother’s hold.

“They didn’t even try to rescue you,” Rin said with a frown. “Was I _that_ scary?”

Yukio dusted himself off a bit and began removing some of the twigs from his hair. “No, they’re just really selfish,” he reassured his brother. He felt bad enough about having Rin scare them already— not because of his classmates’ reactions, but because he knew frightening people was rough on his older brother. “Even when you’re trying to be, you’re hardly scary, Nii-san.” Maybe it was because he knew Rin wouldn’t hurt a fly if he could help it, but Rin’s over the top act had made Yukio quiver with repressed laughter, not fear. “ ‘For that, you will die’? What manga did you pull that from?”

“Shut up,” Rin huffed, lightly cuffing his twin on the shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get home.”

They didn’t rush back to the cabin, but they didn’t walk at a leisurely pace, either. When they got home, they didn’t get the chance to get to the door before their mother opened it, looking worried.

“Yukio, what happened?” Yuri said, grabbing him by the shoulders and inspecting him closely for any injuries. Much to her relief, she couldn’t spot so much as a scratch beneath his disheveled appearance. “Were your classmates giving you trouble again?” They had never physically picked on him before, but she didn’t put it past some of those kids to start.

“I’m fine, Mother. It’s… complicated,” Yukio said. “Nii-san can explain most of it, but I need to go clean up. Don’t panic if someone knocks on the door.” Yukio made his way to the bedroom he still shared with his brother, leaving Yuri to give her eldest son a look of confusion. Rin shrugged.

Several explanations later, Yukio was neatly dressed in a clean school uniform and his mother was entirely caught up on the situation. “I’m not happy about you boys risking exposure, but this could work if we play our cards right,” Yuri said, drumming her fingers on the table. Some part of her worried about raising her sons to be deceptive— but none of them had the luxury of complete honesty. They never had, and probably never would. “Both of you did a good job thinking on your toes.”  
Rin beamed with pride. Yukio was a bit more subtle, but still obviously pleased with the praise. Their quiet moment of self-congratulation was interrupted by the expected knock on the door; Rin ducked into the twins’ room to hide while Yuri and Yukio went to open the front door.

Yukio was the one to actually open the door, with his mother standing behind him. On their porch was a man Yuri recognized as Mr. Yamato and a boy who must have been his son; the younger Yamato looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Can I help you?” Yukio said in his blandest, most polite voice. Yuri stood behind him with a mildly bewildered expression, trying her best to keep from bursting into laughter at the boy’s look of shock; it was a little mean, yes, but Yamato had been more than a little mean to her sons.

“Wh— How are you—” The younger Yamato spluttered, pointing a shaking index finger at Yukio. “I saw a demon kill you!”

“A demon? What are you talking about, Yamato?” The innocent confusion in Yukio’s voice nearly fooled his own mother. Since when was he such a good liar? …And how often was he using this skill on her? If the answer was more often than ‘never’, Yukio was going to be in serious trouble.

Mr. Yamato sighed and shook his head. “I told you he was fine, Satoru,” he said to his son before turning back to Yuri and Yukio. “We’re sorry for bothering you.” Mr. Yamato gave an apologetic bow, which Satoru copied unwillingly. “For some reason, both Satoru and the Ariwara kid have it in their heads that they met a demon, and that it murdered young Okumura…”

“Oh my,” Yuri said, covering her mouth with a hand. “Children can be so imaginative, can’t they?”

Satoru clearly wanted to protest he hadn’t been imagining anything, but had the good sense to keep his mouth shut. “They sure can,” Mr. Yamato replied.

“B-But I saw it! I swear!”

Mr. Yamato gave another long-suffering sigh and placed his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Have a good night, Ma’am.”

Yuri and Yukio watched the Yamatos retreat in the direction of Sakuoka. Once they disappeared from sight, Yuri felt a weight lift from her shoulders she hadn’t even recognized until it was gone. Yukio ran a hand through his hair, staring at the edge of their cabin’s clearing. The sun was just beginning to set, and small hints of red and orange peeked through the dense forest. “I can’t believe it actually worked,” he said with a small laugh.

“People will accept a lot of strange things as long as their view of the world doesn’t have to change,” Yuri said. “With any luck, those boys are going to dismiss what happened as some kind of strange, shared dream.”

“Yeah, hopefully…”

* * *

At school the next day, Yukio could feel Yamato and Ariwara staring at him. They only looked when they thought he couldn’t notice, but he could still feel their eyes boring into his back. It was like they expected him to disappear into thin air at any moment. Yukio pretended he didn’t notice and that everything was normal, but their other classmates noticed for him.

“Psst, Ariwara,” one of the girls whispered during Japanese while the teacher copied a sentence to the board. “Why do you keep staring at the Witch Boy? Did he do something?”

“No,” Ariwara replied almost immediately. “I was just staring off into space, that’s all.”

Yukio leaned over his work a little bit more, unable to help the way his lips twitched upwards. He knew probably shouldn’t have enjoyed how freaked out his bullies were… but he felt a little bit like Matilda after scaring Miss Trunchbull. Yamato and Ariwara were bigger and stronger than him, but he’d beaten them with his mind. He’d kept his brother safe.

At lunch, he read his book in peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, 60 comments and over 200 kudos! Thank you for all of the support, folks <3 It was nice to focus on Yukio this chapter for a change. If my plans go right, I'm probably going to be writing a lot more from his point of view in the second part of this series...
> 
> With everything JK Rowling has said recently, making Yukio a Harry Potter fan felt kind of weird, but I saw no other way to make him an authentic late '90s baby. There's absolutely no way that boy got through the 2000s without getting into the series, just look at him.


	11. Canities Subita

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Canities subita_ : a sudden whitening of the hair.

It all started with a strand of white hair.

Rin was eleven when he found his first one. It stood out against the dark navy background, and the sight made the boy a little nervous. Humans got white hair as they got older, but eleven seemed very young to start with that. Uncle Shirou’s hair had been entirely white for as long as Rin had known him, although he was probably a special case; Rin’s mother was 40, and gray streaks were only just beginning to show in her otherwise dark brown locks.  
“Yukio, have you got any white hair?” Rin had asked, turning to his twin while still grasping the single white strand.

Yukio finished brushing his teeth before answering. “No, I don’t think so,” he said, peering into the mirror. “Have you got one, Nii-san?” Rin showed him the single white hair. The younger twin’s green eyes widened slightly before he concluded, “It’s just one, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

As it turned out, it wasn’t just one. In the following months, more and more white hairs had appeared. Around when the twins were twelve, it quickly reached the point where Rin wasn’t able to cover up the patches with some very careful styling. Whatever it was had spread to his tail, too, turning patches of the fur the same shade of bluish-white.

“Rin, what happened to your hair?” His mother asked one day, wrapping a white lock near the nape of his neck around her finger. She looked disturbed, which made him wonder if this was much more serious than he assumed.

The boy shrugged. “I-I dunno, I just started getting white hairs one day…” Rin probably should have told his mother sooner, but he hadn’t known how to bring it up; he hadn’t wanted her to panic and he’d been sure the white spots would go away on their own eventually. But now they weren’t, and his mother was definitely not happy.

“Young man, how long has this been happening?”

Rin grimaced. “Uh… six months?” He wasn’t looking at his mother, but he could feel her irritation with him. “I-I thought it’d go away, and then it didn’t, a-and it never seemed like a good time to talk about it…”

His mother began to comb his hair through her fingers, scrutinizing every strand nearly as much as when Yukio had brought home head lice. “You’ve gotten this much in six months?” Rin nodded, his throat tight. He’d suspected that his hair was turning white remarkably fast, but hearing it out loud made him even more nervous. What if there was something really wrong with him? “I’m calling your uncle.”

Uncle Shirou arrived right after he was finished teaching Cram School, doctor’s bag in tow. Rin could count on one hand the number of times Shirou had used any of the medical equipment inside on him; his body usually fought off bugs and healed injuries quickly, but on a few occasions it was too quick. “You said his hair was turning white?”

Yuri nodded, ushering Shirou over so he could get a closer look. “It’s still got the blue undertone he’s always had, though,” she said, parting Rin’s hair in such a way that the largest patch right above his ear was exposed. Shirou took her word on the coloration; his normal glasses were too tinted for him to make out something so subtle.

The priest stared at the white patch for several long moments, rubbing his goatee contemplatively. “I think I’ve got an idea of what it might be, but I need to rule some other things out first. Rin, I’m going to need you to get down to your boxers and suppress your flames.” Before Rin even had a chance to protest, Shirou turned his attention to rummaging around in his doctor’s bag. “I know I put a pair of non-tinted glasses in here somewhere…”

One thorough medical inspection later, Rin’s uncle seemed to have reached a conclusion. “Well, that rules out just about every medical condition I know of that could cause this,” he said, putting away the non-tinted glasses and replacing them with his usual pair. “Which means my initial hunch was right. Your hair is changing because you’re growing up.”

“ _What?_ That doesn’t make any sense,” Rin said, staring at Fujimoto like he’d gone insane. He turned to look over at his mother. “You didn’t mention my hair changing colors in that talk you gave me an’ Yukio.” Growing hair in new places, sure, but Rin was pretty sure the hair he already had wasn’t supposed to change very much. Yukio’s hadn’t. “…This is some sort of weird demon thing, isn’t it?”

Shirou nodded. “It’s probably a part of your demon heart maturing,” he said. The use of the word ‘probably’ wasn’t reassuring. “You might change in other ways as well, but it’s difficult to predict. There hasn’t been anyone else quite like you before, you know.”

Rin had been well aware of that fact for as long as he could remember. Being one of a kind seriously sucked sometimes. “What am I supposed to do, just wait and see what happens?”

Shirou blinked. “Well, yes,” he replied. “I’m sorry, Rin, but there’s nothing else you can do. This is a part of growing up for you.”

“B-But I don’t want it to be,” Rin said quietly, lip trembling. He knew it was a dumb, childish thing to say, but it was how he felt. He didn’t want his hair to turn all white, or for any of his demonic features to become any more prominent than they already were. He didn’t want to grow hooves, or horns, or whatever his demon heart decided an adult demon should have. What if he ended up looking scary or so inhuman that even a glamour couldn’t cover it?

“Come here, sweetheart,” Yuri said, pulling her sniffling son into her arms. She ran a hand through his hair soothingly and planted a kiss on his white spot. “I think you’ll look very handsome with white hair,” she said warmly. Shirou barely concealed a snort; Yuri’s affection for white hair had become something of a running joke for them over the years.

“R-Really?”

Yuri nodded.

“Trust me, girls love guys with white hair,” Shirou said, smirking. Yuri shot him a glare behind Rin’s back, and he stuck out his tongue at her rather childishly.

Rin didn’t notice the silent back-and-forth between his mother and uncle. He was silent for a few long moments before working up the courage to quietly ask, “Will I still be able to go outside?”  
The possibility of being stuck in the forest again scared him more than anything. He’d only had a couple of years of trips outside at this point, and Rin was only just beginning to feel comfortable.

“Of course you will,” Yuri quickly reassured him. “You don’t even have to glamour your hair color if you don’t want to. Isn’t that right, Shirou?”

Father Fujimoto looked a little surprised to be consulted on the topic once again, but he took it in stride. He was the one with the most experience with how people reacted to seeing a kid with white hair, after all. “You might get a few strange looks, but that’s about it.” Yuri didn’t look very happy with his less than glowing recommendation, but Shirou thought it best to be honest with the kid. Still… adding some kind of positive anecdote couldn’t hurt. “I’ve had white hair my entire life, and nobody’s ever given me crap for it.”  
Granted, that was because they (rightly) assumed Shirou would knock their lights out if they did. Rin was stronger by a long shot, but exceedingly gentle— _too_ gentle, Shirou thought at times. Rin would eagerly come to the defense of others, especially his family, but refused to lift a finger to defend himself. If someone actually gave him trouble because of his hair, Shirou doubted his nephew would do anything but retreat back into his shell.

The rest of the day progressed rather normally. There was no more talk of Rin's hair, but a nagging thought refused to leave the back of his mind. Was he turning into his father? Unlike Yukio, Rin was no good with genetics, but he didn't need to be to understand everything demonic about him had been inherited directly from Satan. Rin didn't even know what Satan looked like, but he could only assume the more demonic he got, the more he'd look like him. Whatever _that_ meant.

“Yukio,” Rin called softly from the top bunk later that night. “Do you think Satan has white hair?”

“I don’t know, Nii-san,” Yukio replied drowsily, a little annoyed. It was late, and he had class tomorrow. “Why don’t you ask Mother?”

Rin turned over on his side and began to fidget, causing the bed to squeak in protest. “She gets so sad when she has to talk about him…” His mother had never said a cruel word about their father, but she hadn’t needed to. Satan was a bad person who had hurt her terribly, that much was clear. It was the reason Rin was terrified he could be becoming more like him. He knew that his mother would love him no matter what, but he couldn’t stand the thought of reminding her of someone who had hurt her. Even unintentionally, through something over which he had no control.

Yukio yawned. “Maybe Uncle Shirou would know?”

_Would_ Uncle Shirou know? He had known their mother for most of her life, according to him. Even if Shirou and Satan had never met, Yuri probably would have described the father of her children to her closest friend, right? Rin felt a small shiver go through him; even thinking about the events leading to his birth in such an abstract form made him deeply uncomfortable. Yukio had always been the more curious one when it came to that sort of thing… not that it paid off for him very often.  
What would make their mother or uncle any more willing to answer Rin’s questions? He could argue that he needed to know more about Satan to understand what was happening to him, in a way that simply wasn’t necessary for Yukio. Some half-demons apparently started to awaken around their age, but Yukio showed absolutely no signs of anything other than regular human puberty.   
As his eyes drifted shut, Rin resolved to come up with a list of questions for his mother and uncle the next day. There was no guarantee he’d get answers to anything, but he had to try.

* * *

  
_The crackle of flames started quietly at first, quickly growing to a roar. The familiar scent of sulfur hung in the air, but the blue light Rin was so used to suddenly seemed menacing. It was bright enough that he had to squint, but his eyes still burned._ Everything _burned; Rin tried to scream, but his voice was drowned out by the roaring of the flames. He could smell flesh burning-- was it his own? Were Ma and Yukio safe?_

_He looked up to see them standing at a distance, shaking with fear. Rin couldn’t tell whether they were afraid for him or of him. They reached out in unison, extending a single hand each._ No! _Rin tried to tell them._ Stay away, you’ll get hurt!

_Neither of them listened. He could see their fingertips blacken and crumble to ash, just as his had. The dark patches of burnt flesh spread among the three of them, clothing singeing and turning to dust as well, until Rin and his entire family were gone._

Rin stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes after awakening, trying to slow his pounding heart. His forehead ached as if he’d smacked it against something, but the pain wasn’t fading like it usually did. In the bunk bed below, Rin heard a quiet groan and the rustling of sheets. Moments later, Yukio was peering over the railing of the top bunk with a concerned look.

“Nii-san, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah, of course,” Rin said quickly.

“Really? Mind telling me why you decided to light up our room at…” Yukio glanced at his watch, “3 in the morning?”

It was only then that Rin realized the entire room was awash in blue light from his flames. He wrapped his arms around himself, pulling his legs up to his chest; what was happening to him? Rin hadn’t flared up while sleeping in years. “I had a nightmare,” he admitted quietly. He hadn’t meant to wake his brother, and he felt terrible about it; Yukio had to wake up for school in a few hours, and now he was going to be tired for the rest of the day because of Rin.

Yukio’s expression softened. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Rin shook his head, grimacing a little at how the movement worsened the pain. “Can I sleep on the bottom bunk with you?” He wasn’t sure why he didn’t mention the headache; Rin knew Yukio would be angry with him for not telling him about it, but he felt like he’d troubled his twin enough already.

Yukio’s presence was immensely comforting, dispelling any unconscious fear of the nightmare holding a grain of truth. His twin wasn’t hurt or gone; he was right beside Rin, close enough that he could hear Yukio’s heartbeat. It was easy for Rin to drift back to sleep, one arm wrapped around his brother’s.  
Yukio found sleep much more difficult. Not wanting to disturb Rin until he absolutely had to, he elected to just lie there, listening to his brother’s soft snoring. Knowing that his older brother was able to get back to sleep quickly was a small comfort, but one that didn’t touch his deepest worries.

At times, his brother’s power and abilities were enviable, but for once Yukio was thankful he’d missed out. The changes that Yukio found himself going through were difficult enough, and those were at least predictable and well-documented; he couldn’t imagine what his brother felt about the unknown path ahead.  
He wished he knew what he could do to help. He was going to support his brother no matter what, of course, but Yukio wanted something _specific_ he could do.

He tried not to think about how there was no guarantee his own demonic features, few as they were, wouldn’t also begin to change or even increase. It wasn’t unheard of for half-demons born “human” to awaken in their teenage years. When he was younger, he might have welcomed it— but now, he could only think of how disruptive it would be to his life. If Yukio awakened, he could kiss high school goodbye; he’d be stuck learning from scratch everything Rin had struggled with for years.  
As he looked down at Rin’s sleeping form, Yukio wondered what it was like to have a tail, flames, fangs; he’d thought about it countless times, even asking his brother once or twice, but he’d never gotten a satisfactory answer. Nii-san had never known anything different, so how could he explain it to anyone who’d never experienced it?

For both his own sake and his brother’s, they had to find out more about what they were and what could happen. There _had_ to be something out there to help the both of them... Yukio just had to figure out where to start looking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Demon Puberty time, yippee! >:) Also, every time I think I'm getting closer to wrapping things up, my brain comes up with another chapter to put in before the end of this thing... oy. 
> 
> Thank you for all of your views, kudos, and especially your comments!


	12. All Good Things

> The signs of maturation a half-demon will experience are highly dependent on parentage while also being unique to each individual. With the exception of identical twins, no half-demon will undergo the exact same changes as another, even with the same parentage. Variability within those who share the same demonic parent is more commonly the number of demonic manifestations, rather than the type of manifestation.

Yukio closed the webpage he was looking at with a growing sense of frustration, clicking the ‘x’ at the top corner with an unnecessary amount of force. No matter where he looked, he could only find the same information over and over. Even books and websites that were supposed to be entirely about half-demon physiology just skipped over puberty with some annoying catch-all statement. He wasn’t expecting to find _A Complete Guide to Being the Son of Satan_ , but something with a little detailed information would be nice. Almost all of the information he’d found were things he’d already known from reading the books his mother kept in their house.   
He tried widening the search to Nephilim in general instead of just half-demons, but that was even less helpful. Most of what he could find was about someone with strong demonic traits popping up in an otherwise diluted bloodline— which was the exact opposite issue he and his brother were experiencing.

“Did you find anything new?” Rin asked, wincing as he peeked over Yukio’s shoulder at the screen; looking at it made his head throb even harder, but he couldn’t resist the urge.

Yukio sighed and shook his head. “We’ve been at this for months with nothing to show for it. If Uncle and Mother couldn’t come up with anything, why did I think I could?” Father Fujimoto had access to all sorts of different books and research through the True Cross Order, their mother had written Demonology textbooks, and they _still_ had no clue what to expect out of the next few years for either twin.

“…Can we go? I think Ma’s medicine is wearing off,” Rin said, gingerly touching a hand to his forehead. His headaches had become much more frequent as of late, and the only thing that managed to touch the pain was a salve his mother had made specifically for him.

“Sure. Not like we’re going to actually find something…” Yukio logged off and got out of the chair, pulling himself up to his full height. Although he’d always been a little taller than Rin, he’d had a growth spurt in recent months that made him tower over everyone but Father Fujimoto. Judging by their mother’s height, it was one of the few traits Yukio had inherited from their father.

The bus ride home was quiet and uneventful, but the jostling of the bus had only made Rin’s headache worse. By the time they got home, Rin had to lean on his twin to stay upright; dropping his glamour only took a slight edge off the pain. Why had he thought going outside with a headache would be a good idea?

As soon as they opened the front door, Rin made a beeline to where Ma kept their medication. Yuri hovered near him, watching him apply salve to his forehead with a keen eye. “How are you feeling? Should I get out some of the tinctures?”

“I’m fine,” Rin said with a small shake of his head, his attention drawn to the woman still sitting at the table. “Shura-nee, is that you?”

Shura smirked. “In the flesh,” she replied. She took a sip from a beer can she’d definitely brought with her. “Like what you did with your hair, by the way.” Rin ran a hand through his hair a little self-consciously; the last of his dark hair had disappeared only recently.

“Where have you _been_?” Yukio asked, sounding equal parts awed and irritated. The older they got, the longer the intervals between Shura’s visits had gotten. At this point, it had been years since Shura’s last visit. They knew it wasn’t personal, that she was probably just busy with the Order, but it had hit Rin particularly hard.

“Ever since I made First Class, they’ve been working my ass off,” Shura sighed. She took another long sip. “That’s why I’m here, actually… wanted you all ta hear it from me.” She fiddled with the tab at the top of her beer can a bit. “The Order is relocating me to the Vatican,” she said. “They’re making me an Inspector.”

“Congratulations, Shura. That’s quite the honor,” Yuri said. Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Why are you congratulating her? She’s telling us she’s leaving!” Rin snapped, baring his fangs. His flames brightened around him; he managed to control himself enough to not burn anything, but the room became uncomfortably warm. Before anyone else could respond, he stormed into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. He didn’t even bother with climbing the ladder up to his bed; instead, he flung himself onto Yukio’s bottom bunk.

There were a few long, awkward moments of silence in the main room after Rin left. “I’ll go try talking to him,” Yukio said at last, but his mother grabbed his wrist before he could leave the room.

“Give him some time alone,” she said gently. Yukio relented and sat down. Yuri turned her attention to Shura with an apologetic expression. “He’s not angry with you, Shura, he’s just… overwhelmed.”

Shura took another drink. “I really didn’t think me leavin’ would upset him this much… It’s not like I’ve been around much anyways.”

“You’re like a sister to him. To _us_ ,” Yukio said, admitting to the second part with only minor difficulty. He was nowhere near as affectionate as his brother, and he and Shura had never gotten along that well… but it’d be a lie to say she didn’t feel like some kind of older sister. Not the kind he’d go to for any sort of life advice, but a sister nonetheless. One even Yukio had to admit he would miss dearly. “But I have other people I can talk to. Nii-san can count the number of people he knows on one hand.”

Somehow, how small Rin’s world was had slipped Shura’s mind. He’d been going outside for a few years now, sure, but it wasn’t like he was making friends with the strangers he met on the street. He couldn’t do any of the things kids normally did to make friends. All he had was his mother, brother, Shirou, the other demons in the forest… and Shura. No wonder he was so upset.  
There was still nothing Shura could do about it; if she went back on her word to the Order, they were definitely going to be suspicious. Leaving now was probably for the best, anyways. At least she was leaving on her own accord, well before her time was up. Even if she stayed, they’d only get five more years with her— and forming an even closer attachment during those years would only make her death hurt even more. Better to cut things off now; by the time she was gone from this world, they’d be long over her absence in their lives. It was better this way… even if it hurt like Hell for everyone involved.  
She couldn’t help but think that if she’d never met Rin, he wouldn’t be suffering like this. Can’t miss something you’ve never had, right? If she had known a decade ago how selfish it had been for her to follow Shirou into the forest on that fateful day, she never would have done it. She didn’t regret knowing the twins, and she didn’t regret getting to know Yuri again, but the last thing she wanted was for her short life to have this kind of negative effect on a kid who didn’t have a lot going for him in the first place. At least she didn’t have to worry about Yukio too much; he might have been physically weaker than his brother, but he was a tough cookie mentally. He wasn’t exactly outgoing, but he was still a far cry from the shrinking violet he’d been.

Shura took one last swig of her beer, then stood up. “I think I’m gonna try to talk to him now.” She rapped on the twins’ door with the back of her hand. “…Rin?”

“Jus’ leave already!” Rin cried, his voice muffled by the door and what was probably a pillow.

Shura sighed, regretting her decision to leave her beer on the table. “I’m not leaving until I get to actually say goodbye, Sparky,” she said, leaning on the door for a few moments before biting the bullet and barging in. “Is this how you want me to remember you? Throwing a temper tantrum?”

Rin looked utterly pitiful, clutching a pillow to his chest with bloodshot eyes. There were tear tracks on his red, blotchy face, and his white tail was wound tight around his ankle. “ ‘M not.”

“Really? ‘Cause it kinda looks like you are to me,” Shura said in a sing-song, teasing voice.

The half-demon shot her a withering glare. If looks could kill… “I’m not a little kid anymore, so don’t talk to me like one.”

The smile disappeared from Shura’s expression as she took a seat next to Rin on the bed. “Fine. Let’s talk, then.”

For all his talk about not being a kid, Rin’s expression was unmistakably one of a lonely, hurt child. He leaned his head against her shoulder, covered in his usual warm, blue glow. Shura could feel the flames lick at her skin; it almost felt as if they were trying to pull her closer, like the undertow of waves lapping at the shore. “Why are you leaving?”

“They’re basically promoting me. Like yer mom said, it’s an honor,” Shura said, uncharacteristically gentle. “If I turned it down, the Order would get suspicious. Nobody wants that.”

“I guess,” Rin muttered. “…Are you ever gonna come back?”

Her eyes met Rin’s for a long time. “Probably not, kid. I’m sorry.” She really was. Even if this was what was best, even if staying would only delay the inevitable… she felt like she was leaving behind the two kid brothers she’d never had. Shura had accepted her fate long ago, but knowing she would never get to see the twins grow up hurt in ways she hadn’t expected.

Rin said nothing. Instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around Shura, tight enough that it hurt a little to breathe— and he cried. He cried with the full, heaving sobs of someone deeply hurting, utterly human and everything but at the same time. Usually, people crying like this just made Shura uncomfortable, but seeing Rin like this was genuinely upsetting; he was usually so bright and happy. She didn’t know how long they sat there, holding each other as Rin cried. Shura could have believed it was anywhere from two minutes to two hours, but at some point Rin managed to pull himself together.  
He sniffled a little as he pulled away from Shura, rubbing at his eyes. “I’m gonna miss you a lot, Nee-san.”

The corner of Shura’s lips turned upward in a small, sad smile. She clapped him on the shoulder with the roughness he’d long grown accustomed to. “Me too. Man, I never woulda thought that between you ‘n Four Eyes, _you’d_ end up being the bigger crybaby,” Shura said, her smile morphing into a wry grin.

“Shut up,” he said with a wet chuckle, lightly cuffing her on the arm.

When they heard the door to the bedroom open, both Yuri and Yukio prepared themselves for the worst. They were relieved to find that Rin had come around. Yuri was the one to insist that Shura stay for dinner, but Rin was determined to cook. It’d been a while since Shura had seen the kid at work— he was even better than she remembered. He filleted fish and chopped vegetables with the precision and skill of someone much older. The part of Shura that never really left her work behind wondered how good of a Knight he could be with those kinds of blade skills, but the thought was quickly dismissed. Nearly everything else about the kid would have made him a terrible Exorcist; he was too empathetic towards demons, too nervous around crowds, too frightened of hurting others. And, of course, there was the tiny detail of the Order not knowing he existed— which was for the best, since they’d probably want him dead if they knew.  
“Ever thought of bein’ a chef, Rin?” Shura said, leaning on a bare area of the counter.

Rin moved over to their rice cooker. “A little,” he said bashfully, returning to the counter after filling the appliance. He didn’t bother with cooking any of the fish or vegetables on the stove. After seasoning them, he roasted them right where they were, filling the kitchen with a blue glow and the smell of cooking food. “I’d have to get used to cooking the human way,” he joked. Rin knew how to use a kitchen range— the ancient, wood-burning one his family had, at least. Using his flames was simply both more precise and easier.  
He was getting closer to the age where he could, in theory, hold down a job. It’d be exciting to be able to participate in the human world and meet new people doing something he loved, but the idea also made him nervous. What if people didn’t like him? Even worse, what if he made a friend and then had to hide half of who he was from them? Rin had no clue how Yukio managed it.

Shura turned her attention to the younger twin. “Still wanna be a doctor, Yukio?” He nodded, and Shura gave him a little, gruff nod of approval in return. “I know you guys will do great.” The others all politely ignored her voice catching in her throat. The four of them spent the rest of the night eating and chatting, talking about anything but her impending departure. They all wanted to make the most of what little time they had left together.   
Eventually, Shura looked at the clock and knew that she couldn’t put things off any longer. She had no key home, and the last bus out of town was going to leave soon. Her departure was about as tearful as she expected; both Shura herself and Yukio were relatively fine, but Yuri and Rin were beside themselves.

Just as she was about to finally leave, Yuri pulled her aside on the front porch one last time. The petite woman peered up at Shura, a bittersweet smile on her face. “I’m very proud of you,” Yuri said. Her voice wavered only slightly. “I’m sure Shirou is, too. Please take care of yourself, okay?”

When she was younger, Shura would have cursed her out, pushed her hand off her upper arm. Who did Yuri think she was, acting like a mother to her? Even now she felt the urge to lash out, to burn a bridge so she’d have no regrets. But she knew any attempts to get Yuri Egin to stop caring were in vain; no matter what Shura did, Yuri was probably going to fret over her like she was one of her own kids until the end of time. The least Shura could do was leave her on a good note.

“I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long wait! Midterms are hell, but spring break is here and the end is nigh! Also, before anyone gets _too_ upset: Shura will return, don't you worry. I just can't tell you when quite yet ;)


	13. i think upon hellfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I never see thy face but I think upon hellfire and Dives that lived in purple, for there he is in his robes, burning, burning." - Falstaff, Henry IV, Part 1

“A letter arrived for you, Okumura-kun.” The envelope the teacher placed on Yukio’s desk was much larger and thicker than a letter had any right to be; it almost looked like an admissions packet. It wasn’t unusual for high schools to send their materials to Yukio’s middle school instead of his secluded home, but this envelope wasn’t like any of the others he’d received so far. There was no return address, for one thing.

Yukio made a move to open the letter before remembering that classes were about to start. “Do you know where it’s from?” He asked his homeroom teacher.

She shrugged. “All I know is that it showed up in my inbox addressed to you. Seems like someone is trying to recruit you!”

He tried to mirror his teacher’s excited grin, but could only muster up an uneasy smile. Maybe he was simply being paranoid, but Yukio didn’t have a good feeling about this mystery letter. If a good school was trying to recruit him, why wouldn’t they plaster their letterhead all over the envelope?

“Ooh, Okumura-kun got more mail from schools,” commented Yukio’s classmate, Takumi Kaneda. Yukio got along well enough with him that they could probably be considered friends; they ate lunch together along with a few other people and worked together in classes when they could. Yukio had several people he could call ‘friends’ now, a far cry from his elementary school days. “Sure do have a lot to choose from… I don’t envy you one bit. Too much pressure.”

“Have you already decided which high school you’re applying to, Kaneda-san?”

Takumi leaned his hip on Yukio’s desk. “Both of my older sisters went to Tsukuba Prefectural, so take a guess. They’ve got a really good track team there, too.” Just then, the bell rang and everyone shuffled to their seats.

It was only October, but everyone else seemed to already know which high schools they were going to attend next year— and the entrance exams hadn’t even started yet. Yukio had been paralyzed by choice. He could only take so many entrance exams, after all. Public or private? Relatively local, or a good school that was far away? He’d gotten a few recruitment letters from boarding schools, but even if they offered a full ride… Yukio couldn’t leave his family. He couldn’t leave his brother.  
They’d argued about it, of course. Nii-san hated the possibility of holding his brother back, and Yukio hated how determined he was to sacrifice his own sanity for Yukio’s sake. Their prefecture didn’t have the same large number of good schools as Tokyo, but Yukio could still get a perfectly fine high school education while staying close to home. He just needed to get into medical school. So what if he wasn’t going to the most prestigious high school in Kanto? Nii-san had all sorts of lofty ideas about Yukio ‘reaching his potential’ that, while flattering, simply weren’t realistic.

Lunch arrived relatively quickly, and Yukio found himself sitting with his usual group. He stared down the envelope, barely picking at his bento.

“If you’re not going to eat your food, I will,” Sumida teased, sneaking her chopsticks towards Yukio’s food. Yukio brushed her hand away wordlessly and continued staring at the envelope.

Takumi sighed. “Just open it, man. You’re acting like it’s gonna be blackmail or something…”

He honestly hadn’t considered that option, but it was making Yukio even more concerned. But there was nothing to be done for it— he had no choice but to bite the bullet and open the packet. When he did, he found two application packets accompanied by a letter on expensive looking stationery. Yukio unfolded the letter and was met with a wave of perfume so strong it made his eyes water. What he read made the blood drain from his face.

> _Dear Mr. Okumura,_
> 
> _We have taken notice of your impressive performance in school. Your stellar grades, extracurricular activities, and status as a legacy student lead us to believe you may be a great fit for True Cross Academy. We encourage you to register for our entrance exam in January, and to fill out the enclosed application. Depending on your performance during the entrance exam, you may be offered scholarships covering the full cost of tuition, room, and board._
> 
> _In addition to our standard curriculum, you are strongly encouraged to apply for our Cram School program_

The letter took up the entire page, but Yukio found he couldn’t focus enough to do anything put glance at the very bottom— and there in ornate script was the name ‘Johann Faust V’, accompanied by the title ‘Headmaster’ written directly below.

Yukio’s distress must have been clear on his face, because his friends were staring at him with brows drawn close together. “Holy crap, was it actually blackmail?” Kaneda said in a hushed tone.

“No,” Yukio said, folding up the letter and quickly stuffing it back into the envelope. “I just didn’t expect to receive a letter from a school so far away, that’s all.” Sumida and Kaneda eyed him suspiciously but said nothing. They were long used to his secretive nature at this point; he rarely spoke about his life outside of school, and neither of them knew where he lived despite knowing him for three years. They knew Yukio had no family other than his mother, that she ran some kind of pottery business… and that was about it.

Yukio tried his best to seem normal for the rest of the day, but inside he was panicking. He knew all too well about the True Cross Academy— the one school he would _never_ attend. No matter how badly he wanted to tear up the packet and forget he’d ever received it, this was something his mother needed to see. Sending this letter, especially with two applications enclosed… it had to be some sort of message. Whether it was a threat or a warning remained to be seen.  
He had the envelope in a death grip during the entire bus ride home, one that didn’t let up until he got home and set it down on the table. Both Yuri and Rin could immediately tell something was wrong from his expression; his fear seemed nearly contagious, hanging over their family like a dark cloud.

“This was delivered to me at school today,” Yukio said, his voice hoarse. He swallowed, feeling as if his mouth were made of cotton. “From True Cross.”

He would never forget the mute terror on his brother’s face, or his mother’s expression as she opened the envelope with shaking hands. “What the Hell is he planning?” She whispered under her breath as she read the letter.  
Samael knew the twins existed, of course. How could he not? But he’d always taken a very hands-off approach, only doing little things here and there to help keep their secret— never assigning missions in their forest, for example, or giving Shirou a key to their home. Yuri had known from the beginning that even these little favors had a cost and the Demon King would expect _something_ from her. Was this his price? Her youngest son?

…Or was his letter a warning of something to come? The King of Time was meticulous with his details, and would never be so careless as to acknowledge Yukio with a paper trail unless he had a very good reason for doing so. His acknowledgment of one twin, complete with official True Cross Order letterhead, might have been a warning that the Order was beginning to get suspicious. Or Mephisto could be close to revealing their existence for some sort of gambit, and this was a signal for courtesy’s sake.  
Yuri hadn’t played Order politics like this in nearly fifteen years, and she hadn’t even been particularly good at it then. Shirou had much more experience and would probably know what to do, but was it even safe for her to contact him at this point? How was she going to keep her children safe? What should she do?

“Ma?” Yuri was pulled from her thoughts by Rin’s voice, soft and tentative. Yukio looked worried, but Rin looked positively terrified; he had always been attuned to other people’s emotions and the effect was strongest with his relatives. He hadn’t read the letter, but he could guess what it said, and Rin couldn’t help but soak up Yuri’s fear and doubt like a sponge— but it didn’t make him feel the same rush of power full demons felt. Instead it put him on edge, made his hands shake and the fur on his tail stand on end. His headache had been well-managed for once, but he could feel the familiar pressure building in his forehead once again.

Yuri folded the letter back up, her resolve strengthened. “I don’t want either of you to worry,” she said firmly. Setting down the letter, she took her sons’ hands in hers. When had they grown so big? Yukio’s hand practically engulfed hers, and Rin’s wasn’t much smaller. Rin’s claws lightly poked the back of her hand. “Your uncle and I will get to the bottom of this.”   
She could at least take comfort in her sons still trusting her. She could feel their grips loosen slightly as she reassured them, although the tension didn’t disappear from them entirely. If it had, Yuri would have been concerned for her sons’ common sense. She gave them a smile that she hoped was reassuring and then stood up, withdrawing her hands. “I’m going to the payphone to call him right now.” With that, she donned her coat and started on the trek to the nearest phone, leaving the boys alone in the cabin.

A part of Rin wanted to know exactly what the letter said; another part was too afraid to look. Even the slowly mounting pain in his head couldn’t distract him from his worries. “D’you think we’re going to have to leave?”   
Rin had never left their prefecture, and had never even stayed overnight anywhere other than their home. Leaving had always sounded appealing to him in theory, but the way it was becoming real was frightening. Of course, it didn’t escape him that he was the reason they were all so worried. Rin’s existence was the reason they were hidden in the first place, and also what made keeping their secret so difficult. _If I was more human…_

He didn’t _want_ to be more human, not really. Rin’s demonic features were a part of him he couldn’t imagine living without. Even wearing a glamour made him feel strange. At the same time… he knew everyone’s lives would be easier if his heritage wasn’t so blatant. But would he even be himself if he was human?

Yukio jolted his twin out of his thoughts, replying, “I don’t think anybody knows yet.” His tone of voice was soothing, even if his words were anything but. “We all knew things couldn’t continue like this forever, Nii-san.” There had always been a time limit on their way of life, but it had been so easy to forget before. They all knew things would have to change, but they had all assumed—hoped—the changes would be things like Yukio going to a boarding school, or Rin getting a job outside of his mother’s pottery studio. Maybe that was foolish, but the thought of the Order finding them had been too frightening to consider.

“This is all my fault,” bemoaned Rin, burying his face in his hands. “We wouldn’t even need to hide in the first place if I was more— If I wasn’t so—”

“Don’t say that!” Yukio said, roughly grabbing Rin’s wrist. He pulled a hand away from his twin’s face, leaning down to look him in the eye. “If it’s your fault, then it’s mine, too. I’m just as much Satan’s son as you are.”

Rin shoved his twin’s hand away, clenching his own into fists at his sides. “It’s not the same and you _know_ it!” Rin snapped. Yukio’s eyes widened in shock; his older brother had always had a temper, but it was rarely directed at him. Yukio had touched quite the nerve. Still, he wasn’t afraid— he knew his older brother would never hurt him, not on purpose.

“You’re right,” Yukio said evenly. He tried to tamp down as best he could on his own emotions, at least for now; it would hopefully help Rin regain some of his own restraint. “Things aren’t the same for me. But how others react to you still isn’t your fault.” It was a lesson Yukio himself had needed to learn when they were younger, after blaming himself for the things elementary school bullies had said and done to him. When he’d figured out they were the ones responsible, not him, that part of his life became… not _easier_ , but more bearable.

Rin’s anger faded as quickly as it arrived, replaced by sorrow and shame. He _hated_ losing his temper. Even relatively minor outbursts made him feel disgusting; it was the one thing he’d inherited from his father that he couldn’t stand. “I’m sorry,” he croaked pitifully. “I’m so sorry…” His flames dropped below even their usual intensity, horns reduced to tiny candle flames.

Yukio said nothing and pulled Rin into a hug. Rin returned the embrace eagerly, only remembering his own strength when Yukio breathed in sharply. “No matter what, at least we’ll all be together,” Rin said, steadying himself. “Right?”

“Right.”

They hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this fic is taking a dark turn... I won't lie, it's only going to get worse from here, but things will get better eventually, I promise! Can't know light without some darkness, right? Thank you so much for all of your reviews and comments, they keep me going <3


	14. Radiant

Together, Yuri and Shirou came to the conclusion that the best way to respond to Mephisto’s move was to not respond at all. The Egin household lived their lives in a strange, in between space— both hidden and revealed, safe and in danger. Nothing about their day-to-day existence had actually changed, but a sense of impermanence loomed like a dark cloud. The unpredictability of it all only made things worse. If they knew what would happen, they would at least be able to prepare themselves; as it was, they could only assume the worst and prepare for that.   
Yuri slowly but surely made plans for them to move up to Hokkaido after Yukio graduated middle school. They wouldn’t be living in a cabin in the woods anymore; Hokkaido had too many brown bears for that to be safe. They’d be living in an actual village for the first time, and Rin would be living out in the open. He had no idea how to feel about it. He was excited to be able to go out in public more, but terrified he would make a mistake— and that wasn’t even touching the lurking fear their impending move wouldn’t be enough to throw the Order off their trail.

All three of them were on edge, but Rin suffered the worst of it. His headaches and nightmares worsened, piling on top of the stress and making him volatile in a way he hadn’t been since the twins were six years old. He was still able to keep himself from burning people, but things often weren’t as lucky. Incinerating a broken spatula or a dropped piece of pottery felt good at first— but then he would look over at his mother, see the poorly hidden fear in her eyes, and what little relief his outburst had given him was replaced with shame. What kind of monster frightened his own mother? Why couldn’t he control himself? _What was wrong with him?_  
Rin knew what was wrong, of course. They all knew. He’d always worked so hard for control, doing everything in his power not to turn out like his father… and now he felt like the choice had been taken out of his hands. Still, he struggled against his instincts in whatever ways he could. He’d taken to removing himself from situations when he felt the first twinges of anger; it meant running out of a lot of rooms, but he had much fewer outbursts as a result.

There was no such remedy for his headaches. They only grew worse as time moved on, building to a climax a few months before the twins had their fifteenth birthday. Rin woke from a dead sleep one early morning, clutching his forehead with both hands and whimpering. He couldn’t even move. Was he dying? What was going on? Rin was too distracted to notice his brother had awoken until he felt a hand gently jostle his shoulder.

“Nii-san, what’s wrong?” Yukio asked. Rin winced; every word sent a sharp, stabbing pain through his skull. Pain usually agitated him, but he was in too much of it to even think of lashing out. “Is it your head? Should I get Mother?” A nod was the most Rin could muster, and even that left him in agony. Yukio’s hand left his shoulder and Rin heard several pairs of footsteps a few moments later.

“Lift your hands and let me take a look,” his mother said softly. “Oh— oh my…”

Upon drawing his hands away from his face, Rin was surprised to find that his pain eased somewhat. He was even more surprised to see his palms were sticky with blood. Did one of his claws scratch his face somehow in the night? Rin looked to his mother and brother for answers and found none; their expressions appeared equal parts disturbed and mystified. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Yuri said. Her near instant response only worried Rin more. “…But it’d be best if you saw things for yourself.”

Getting Rin out of his top bunk was a bit more difficult than usual, but they all somehow managed it. He leaned on Yukio as they made their way to the bathroom, knees wobbly with pain. Before his mother could even move to turn the lights on, Rin spotted himself in the darkened mirror. His jaw dropped.  
“I… I have…” _Horns_ , plain as day. And not the flame ones he’d had since birth— now he had the real things, too. His bangs were plastered to his forehead and stained pink with sweat and blood, but through them he could see the two nubby protrusions. Right where his flame horns always sat. Rin’s vision was beginning to darken around the edges.

“Nii-san!” Yukio’s voice sounded distant, as if someone had stuffed cotton balls in Rin’s ears. Before Rin could respond, his vision went black and he knew no more.

* * *

 

Rin awoke to find his mother leaning over him and dabbing at his forehead with gauze soaked in something herbal. His head was still sore, but no longer excruciating. “Ma?” Rin croaked, squinting.

His mother stopped whatever she was doing and gave Rin a relieved smile. “You’re awake,” she said softly, cupping his cheek in her hand. Rin leaned into the touch, but winced when his forehead brushed against what must have been a pillow. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”

“Better,” Rin said. “Hurts a lot less.” He reached up to inspect his forehead and see if the horns were still there, but his mother brushed his hand away.

“No touching,” Yuri scolded. “The skin around your horns is still raw. You’ve never gotten an infection before, but I don’t want you starting now.”

So they were still there. Rin figured as much. He could only hope that this would be the last major, demon-related change he’d have to experience— but knowing his own luck, Rin doubted it. Even if they were, the horns would probably keep growing until he was an adult, making blending into the human world more complicated with each passing year. Like his hair hadn’t made that tough already… “Where’s Yukio?”

“I’m right here, Nii-san,” Yukio said softly from the other side of the bed. Rin felt his brother’s larger hand grab his own, but couldn’t move to look at him directly.

Rin frowned; he knew how important getting into a good high school was for Yukio, and he didn’t want his twin missing anything on his account. “But school—”

Yukio snorted. “You think I care about _school_ right now?” He had never seen his older brother so weak and miserable. If Yukio tried to go to classes, he knew he’d be too distracted thinking about how Rin was doing to focus on anything. “I can study for entrance exams more here than I could at school, anyways.” Yukio doubted he was actually going to get studying done, but mentioning it seemed to appease Rin.

Rin relaxed back against the pillows propping him up with a soft sigh. He felt completely drained; he’d only ever felt this way before after using his flames too much, or holding a glamour for as long as he could stand. “Ma, when will it stop hurting?”

Yuri wrung her hands. “We’re not sure,” she told him apologetically. She’d checked every book she owned, gotten Shirou to check his, and half-demons developing physical horns was nearly unheard of. It was just another reminder that nearly everything about her sons was entirely unprecedented. “I called Shirou, and most of what we could find was about treating people recovering from possession… Because of how quickly you usually heal, I’d guess it won’t take more than a few days.”

_A few days_ … for someone who usually healed within minutes, it sounded interminably long. He would probably never get another headache again, though. That sounded worth it to Rin. He was shocked by how tired he felt, even though he hadn’t even been awake for half an hour yet. Rin could feel his eyelids start to drift shut.

“That’s right, honey, go back to sleep,” Yuri said soothingly, smoothing back his white locks.

Rin drifted in and out of consciousness for a while, floating up to the surface to hear snippets of conversations before sinking below once again. The voices were little more than background noise, but he could make out a few things here and there.

“…If they come right now?” That was Yukio’s voice, right? He sounded worried. Rin tried his best to stay afloat.

“They won’t… completely defenseless,” he heard his mother reply. He knew he’d missed something in between, but couldn’t figure it out for the life of him. It was difficult to pay attention for very long. Whatever happened to him— _was_ happening to him—was using most of his energy.

More time passed. The next time Rin awoke, he felt cold fingers prodding at his horns. He could tell the touches were supposed to be relatively gentle, but his previously dormant pain seared anyways; Rin’s eyes snapped open and the boy hissed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. After the pressure stopped and the pain faded, Rin was embarrassed to see his uncle standing above him, looking startled. He wanted to sink through the bed and into the floor.

“Uncle Shirou, I—”

“Shouldn’t have scared you, huh? Sorry,” Father Fujimoto said, his smile gentle and warm like Rin hadn’t hissed at him a few moments ago. “I didn’t think I’d wake you up.”

“They’re still sore,” Rin mumbled. He was still too embarrassed to look up from the sheets and look his uncle in the eye. Rin hadn’t hissed at anyone since he was a little kid; it was a holdover from before he could reliably speak Japanese, before he learned to act a bit more human.   
Yukio wasn’t in the room, but Ma was. She reached out, running her thumb over the back of his hand soothingly.

“You don’t need to act completely human all the time, you know,” she reminded him. There was a small smile playing on her lips, but Rin could see that her eyes were sad. _I’ll have to soon_ , he wanted to say. Doing so would only upset his mother more, of course. She hated how thoroughly he would need to hide himself in Hokkaido, and didn’t feel any less guilty despite Rin’s many assurances he didn’t mind.

Shirou cleared his throat. “I brought someone who might cheer you up,” he said.

Rin’s first thought was that Shura had returned, but he quickly dismissed it; if she was here, she would have come drunkenly stumbling into the room by now, poking at his horns and cracking tasteless jokes. It had to be somebody else… but who? A demon, maybe? Rin reached out, searching for the strange pulling sensation in his chest he got when other demons were around. He could usually get only a vague sense, but something had changed; instead of feeling things, he _knew_ them. And he knew more than he usually did.  
He couldn’t explain it, but the demon felt both large and small at the same time. Rin didn’t know whether to expect a creature the size of a van, or the size of…

“A cat?”

“Good guess,” Shirou said, looking about as astonished as Rin had ever seen him. Ma looked only mildly surprised in comparison, which confused Rin even further. Shirou called out into the hall, “Come in here, Kuro!”

A small cat sidhe trotted into the room, stopping short when he saw Rin. He looked up at Shirou and meowed; like it usually did with nonverbal demons, a voice rang clearly inside Rin’s head.

_Satan?!_

Rin flinched, feeling like he’d been socked in the gut. Nobody else had heard, of course; Shirou simply saw Kuro looking up at him questioningly and told him, “This is Rin, Yuri’s son. You’ve met Yuri, remember?”

_She had me with Satan._ Rin usually spoke aloud for the benefit of humans around him, but doing so right now would only confuse them. _I’m not like him, though. I like humans._

_Really? Me too!_ Kuro and Rin locked eyes for a few long moments before the cat jumped onto the bed, planting himself in Rin’s lap. Rin assumed that meant he liked him, but he wasn’t entirely sure; he hadn’t interacted with many cats before. _Why are you in bed? Are you sick like a human?_

“My horns just came in,” Rin said, out loud this time. He cautiously reached out and scratched behind Kuro’s own horns; Kuro pressed up against his hand and began to purr. It was higher pitched than the low rumbling Rin himself was capable of, but still comforting and familiar.

_That sounds like it hurts! Feel better soon, Rin._

Rin felt his lips twitch upwards. “Thanks.” He liked Kuro a lot; many demons would listen or even defer to Rin because of who his father was, but only rarely did he find other demons with the same sort of affection for humans he had. Even his mother’s familiars were apathetic towards humans at best, with a soft spot for Yuri and Yukio specifically. While continuing to scratch between Kuro’s ears and horns, Rin moved his other hand to start petting the cat demon’s back; how was he so soft? “Wait, don’t you remember your horns growing in?”

_Nope. They just show up when I possess a body._ Kuro began to casually lick his paw.

It was strange to hear full demons talk about possession. There were so many things Rin shared with most demons, but he would never experience or understand the one thing that truly made a demon a _demon_. He’d ask Kuro more about it, but he already knew exactly what sort of answer he’d get. Rin had asked demons about possession dozens of times, and they all talked about it in a way that was simply incomprehensible to anyone who had inhabited a body for as long as they could remember.

Shirou and Yuri watched as their exchange continued, small smiles on their faces. It was clear that Kuro’s mere presence did a lot for Rin, both in regards to his pain and emotional state; he was more alert and happier than he’d been since his horns first erupted. “Would you like Kuro to stay here for a bit?” Shirou offered, before looking over at Yuri. “…If it’s okay with your mother, of course.”

_Yes, yes! Guarding the bridge is boring, Shirou!_

Kuro was immediately for it, but Rin was a little more hesitant. “…But he’s your familiar. Don’t you need him to help with exorcist stuff?” Shirou shook his head, and both Rin and Kuro lit up. Rin turned to his mother with the same doleful expression that Yuri had used on Shirou countless times. “Can he stay with us? _Please_?”

When she wasn’t dishing it out, Yuri was apparently just as vulnerable to The Look as anyone else. “I think we can manage that,” she replied. Rin pulled Kuro into a hug as the demon yowled with joy.

Yuri knew Shirou's decision was calculated. Having Kuro in the forest would do more than provide Rin company; it was a strategic move, placing an experienced, powerful familiar here as whatever Mephisto was planning loomed over them. Shirou was attempting to give them some kind of fighting chance— Rin was immensely powerful, but young and with no real combat experience. Yuri hoped it wouldn’t come to fighting, but if it did… they had to be prepared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: the title for this chapter is based on a fun little linguistic quirk! In Hebrew, the term for rays or beams of light has the same root as the word to describe horns-- meaning they're written about the same, but pronounced differently.
> 
> Nearly 100 reviews, holy crap! It's hard to believe this first part is almost done. The end is nigh, people! Get ready >:)


	15. Examination, Pt I

For once in his life, Okumura Yukio didn’t want to take an exam.

He wasn’t insane enough to say he _enjoyed_ exams, but he didn’t dread them like other people did. He had always been good at taking tests— almost eerily so. Yukio still studied and took things seriously, of course, but the thought of testing didn’t bring him the massive, nauseating anxiety it brought his classmates.  
His issues with the True Cross Academy’s entrance exam had nothing to do with how difficult it was purported to be. Samael had effectively forced his hand into taking the exam— and there was nothing Yukio hated more than being used. This was all a part of some game the Demon King was playing, one he had to play if he wanted any chance of his family being relatively safe. He had no clue how this was supposed to help keep his brother safe, but Samael existed outside of time; it was very possible that he knew something none of them did.

…Or he was stringing them along.

Although the exam didn’t start until 10 AM, Yukio woke up nearly five hours beforehand to take the bus and train. If it had been summer, the sun would have been up already— but it was January, and the canopy of trees made the forest that much darker. Pulling himself out of bed was a struggle but he somehow managed. He could smell breakfast down the hall as he groggily pulled on clothes; his suspicions about who was cooking were confirmed when he looked up to see Rin’s top bunk was empty. How had his notoriously heavy sleeping twin managed to rouse himself without waking Yukio?

Yukio made his way into the kitchen, where he found Rin nursing a cup of coffee he probably wasn’t supposed to be drinking. His snowy hair stuck up in all directions, even on the tuft of his tail, but the appendage began to wag gently anyways when he saw his twin. Kuro snoozed on the counter next to a bowl that had probably contained his breakfast at some point. “Morning,” Rin said with a groggy, lopsided smile. Yukio was willing to bet he’d go back to sleep the second Yukio was out of the house. Rin placed a bowl of rice, a package of natto, and a KitKat in front of his twin.

Yukio tried his best to keep his expression neutral, but he couldn’t help but grimace at the natto. It was healthy, sure, but at what cost? Couldn’t he just pick up some melon bread and canned coffee at the train station?

“Don’t give me that look,” Rin said firmly. The resemblance to their mother was uncanny. “Natto is good for your brain! And the KitKat is good luck.”

At least the KitKat was matcha— his favorite. Yukio was pretty sure his twin had bought a large pack at the beginning of entrance exam season, because he’d been giving Yukio the treats the morning before each exam. This exam was different from the others, but it was reassuring to see one thing had remained unchanged. Yukio sighed. “Fine, I’ll eat it for your sake,” he conceded.

Rin smiled wider. “I’m sure you’ll do well, Yuki,” he said, using a nickname he hadn’t since they were little. “I’ve got a good feeling.”

That makes one of us, Yukio thought to himself. If Rin was nervous at all about the possible outcomes of this exam and the coming months, he did a very good job of hiding it; he’d brightened up considerably after Kuro came to live with them. The cat sidhe was just enough of a distraction for Rin to push the future out of his mind— Yukio wished he was capable of doing the same. They sat there in silence for a good while as Yukio ate his breakfast.

Their mother wandered in at some point, unable to hide her grimace when she spotted the natto Yukio was eating. Her expression quickly smoothed into a smile when he looked up at her son. “Oh, good, I was worried you’d already left! I wanted to wish you good luck before you go,” she said, pulling Yukio into a hug as soon as he stood up from the table. As soon as she released him, he found himself in Rin’s arms, having the life squeezed out of him.

“Thanks, you two,” he said, gasping a little for air as he extricated himself from Rin’s grasp. “I have to get going now, though, or I’ll miss my train,” Yukio continued, slinging his bookbag over his shoulder. There was a long moment of silence where they all simply looked at each other, ending with Yukio blurting, “I love you.”  
He didn’t know why he said it; while his mother and brother weren’t shy with the words, it was something Yukio rarely said aloud. A strange finality hung in the air for reasons none of them could place.

Yukio could have studied on the bus or the trains, but he found himself staring out the window instead. “Faust” had been so interested in Yukio taking the exam that he’d paid for a Shinkansen ticket. The bullet train sped through mountainous forests, valleys full of rice paddies, and countless tunnels as countryside gradually gave way to the city. He had less than a minute to exit the train at his stop, and quickly found himself boarding yet another train heading for True Cross Academy.

Once he was on campus, it was easy to find the exam room; there were large, bright signs with arrows plastered over every inch of the outlandish architecture. The room was larger and more ornate than any of the classrooms at Yukio’s middle school, and it took all of his effort not to gawk.

None of the other students in the room seemed to find the decor extraordinary. Everyone was dressed in street clothes, Yukio included, but everyone else’s clothes looked much more expensive than Yukio’s thrifted shirt and hand-sewn slacks. He pulled his pencils and eraser out of his pockets, checking the sharpened lead and arranging them just right.

A stooped, balding man with thick glasses shuffled into the room holding a large stack of papers. He didn’t have to say a word; the man simply cleared his throat, and the room fell silent. Passing out the exams felt like it took an eternity, but he eventually made it back to the front of the room.

“You have two hours to complete your exam, starting… now,” he said, taking a seat at the desk at the front.

Everything fell away, leaving only Yukio and the test. The other people in the room, his family, Mephisto’s true intentions— for two hours, all of that faded from his mind. It gave him a strange sense of relief. Who knew an exam could be less stressful than everything surrounding it?

* * *

After Yukio left, Yuri started her day— and Rin went right back to sleep. Five in the morning was much too early for his tastes, even though Rin went to sleep relatively early compared to his brother. He was out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow.

_Rin somehow knew he was in a school, despite never stepping foot in one.. He was alone in a room with wooden floors and wide windows that showed an overcast sky, empty except for his desk and chair. There was a clock above a dark green chalkboard; the ticking seemed to echo in his ears. There was a paper on his desk that he couldn’t read, no matter how hard he tried. Was he supposed to be doing something? He felt a strange sense of urgency. A cat yowled in the distance._

“Don’t harm the cat, the Paladin’s got a contract with it—”

_Rin, Rin! Get out of here!_

Wait, no— this wasn’t a dream. He could hear those people, feel Kuro in his mind. Rin bolted out of bed like a man possessed, practically skidding into the main room of the house with his flames flaring. By the time he entered the room, Kuro was gone; his mother was holding the torn remains of the circle Shirou had given them “just in case”. Why his mother had unsummoned an ally, Rin didn’t know; he was too distracted by the strangers in his living room to think about anything else. Rin had never seen those long, black coats before, but he knew instinctively what these people were.

_Exorcists_.

“RIN, _RUN_!” Yuri screamed. Her voice was raw and guttural, the sound of a mother bear warning her cub away from the hunter’s gun. Rin stopped in his tracks, flames dimming.

Where was he supposed to run? The exorcists were between him and the door; there was no way he’d be able to make it back to his room and out the window without them catching up. And what would they do to his mother? He had to stay and protect her.

Her next words were rushed and desperate. “I’ll be fine, just go—”

She was cut off by two deafening bangs, one after the other. One of the exorcists had seized Rin’s moment of vulnerability and taken aim; Rin looked down to find the source of the sudden, searing heat in his chest, and was surprised to find dark red blood slowly spreading from two small holes in his chest. Had he really been shot? Was any of this actually happening? Part of him wanted to think he was still dreaming; it felt like he would wake up any minute, still in his bed. His legs gave out from underneath him without warning, sending him crumpling to the ground. He was too shocked to do anything more than thrash weakly when the exorcists swarmed him, wrenching his arms behind his back and slapping metal cuffs on his wrists. They burned wherever they touched his bare skin; he struggled and writhed in an attempt to keep them away from his skin to no avail. His gasps for air were accompanied by a sickeningly wet, gurgling noise.

Knowing the wounds would heal within 20 minutes didn’t lessen the visceral horror Yuri felt when she saw the bullets hit. Yuri screamed like she hadn’t in over 15 years— the scream of a mother in immense pain. All logic and reason had left her; she could only look at her baby’s bleeding chest and feel it in her own heart. She felt large hands go around her own arms, but she didn’t care. Yuri fought the hold with all of her might, but whoever— _whatever_ —was holding her seemed to be completely invulnerable to her attacks.

Rin wanted desperately to hurt the exorcists. He was shocked by the urge he felt to bite and kick and _burn_ — he wanted to burn them until there was nothing left. They had hurt him, were hurting his mother, for that they would—

_His mother_. The fire in his chest lowered just enough for him to think again. Ma would be beside herself if Rin did anything to them. He wasn’t supposed to hurt humans; that had been the rule since Rin was old enough to understand what a rule was. Deep down, he didn’t _want_ to hurt humans. He hated hurting people— a fact about himself he’d nearly forgotten, blinded by fear and rage. Rin curled in on himself to avoid being further provoked, ignoring the pain in his chest that roared to life every time he moved his torso. The exorcists yanked him up by his armpits and started dragging him towards the door; Rin wanted to scream, but could only muster enough air for a hoarse whimper.

“Ma, are you hurt?!” Rin rasped. His voice was shaking badly and his mouth tasted of blood, but that was to be expected. He was much more worried about his family’s well being than his own. Rin would heal, and quickly— his chest still hurt fiercely and it was difficult to breathe, but he could feel the burning itch deep in his chest that meant his flesh was knitting itself back together. His mother’s body couldn’t do that, and neither could Yukio’s.   
His mother was tougher than she looked, but she was so _small_. Most of the Exorcists towered over her, intimidating and muscle-bound; the Order had clearly sent their strongest and burliest, expecting Rin to put up much more of a fight than he had. They could have hurt her without even meaning to. His eyes darted around the room, desperately searching for his mother. When he found her, he slumped back against the Exorcists holding him with relief; she was completely unharmed. Rin still couldn’t relax entirely. She might have been physically safe, but he could feel the distress and fear rolling off his mother in waves.

Yuri shook her head, pushing down the lump in her throat. They were opening the door with a key now, dragging her son away from her and towards a cell. What if this was the last time she saw him? There was so much she wanted to say to both of her boys… but she settled with what was most important.  
“I love you so much,” she told Rin. Before he could think to reply, the exorcists holding him pulled him over the threshold.

He was gone.

She didn’t fight when the remaining exorcists did the same to her; she hung there in their arms, limp, resigned. Yuri feared nothing they could possibly do to her. Even if they weren’t limited from doing anything because she was human, knowing what they might do to her son was a worse torture than anything physical they could come up with.  
As the door in the holding room she’d been brought to closed with a final bang, she thought of her youngest. He was already at the Academy for testing today, she realized— which probably should have clued Yuri in to the potential raid, but it was too late to dwell on now. She could only hope Shirou was more observant than she was and understood the message she’d tried to send with Kuro.

It hurt to think of Yukio alone. He’d grown a tough skin over the years from dealing with bullies and temperamental demons, but some part of Yuri would always see the quiet, sensitive boy she knew was still there deep down. She'd done her best to prepare both of her sons for their eventual separation from her, but she'd been hoping that separation would be more gradual, less traumatic. It seemed foolishly optimistic of her now.

* * *

“Time is up, please set down your pencils and close your examination booklets.”

The room let out a collective sigh, nearly masked by the sound of pages rustling as 20 kids closed their exam books. Yukio was relieved to be finished; the entrance exam for True Cross Academy was the last one he would need to take, as well as the one he’d been looking forward to the least. His mother and Uncle Shirou had insisted he sit for the exam anyways; the letter had wanted him to take it, and as much as they mistrusted the King of Time, they had no choice but to go along with at least parts of his plan.  
True Cross Academy’s entrance exam had been much more difficult than the standardized public school exams he’d taken, but that was to be expected. It put even the few other private school exams he’d taken to shame as well. So much for the stereotype of rich private schools blindly accepting legacies…Then again, that probably applied only to those who donated money.

After all of the booklets were collected, everyone began to file out of the room. When had those two people in black coats appeared on either side of the doorway? Yukio’s stomach twisted. _Please don’t look at me, please don’t say my name…_

“Okumura Yukio?”

_Fuck._ Yukio pushed down the rising panic, plastering his usual neutral smile on his face. “Yes?”

Their faces remained completely blank. “We’d like you to come with us for a bit, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE EGIN FAMILY WILL RETURN IN SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME
> 
> Just kidding, but they will be back in the second part of this three-part series, the first part of which I'm going to be posting right after this. Thank you so much for all of your kudos and reviews, everyone! I read every review, even if I don't have time to respond (or can't without leaking spoilers literally everywhere). I can't tell you a whole lot about what I have planned, but I will say this: It's going to get worse before it gets better, but it _will_ get better. Eventually.


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